The Valkyria and Deities of Gallia
by Kurogems1208
Summary: Two CPUs are going to help Gallia's people protecting their country. Reasons? It's the right thing to do. Following the main story with some changes in impact events.
1. Chapter 1

**Disclaimer: I own only my OCs and my stories. Everything that's mentioned here that you know belongs to their respective owners.**

**Another story out... and the olders are waiting for me to update. Have to put it out to entertain myself and you readers. And to keep VC alive. Really like the stories and the game's systems, despite not my usual genres.**

**I would like to say more, but it would ruin the fun. So enjoy to your heart content.**

**A bit of spoiler first: VC chars will use their weapons, but the others will mostly use weapons from Call Of Duty, especially the ones from MW series.**

* * *

"You want whom to WHAT?" A certain black hair girl screames in surprise.

"You didn't hear me wrong. I want your younger sister to join me in this fight, and this time no one will interfere."

"Hey! I thought you said you won't..." A brick falls right on the purple's head. "Ouch!"

"No, it's not like you thought. I was planning to call your older self, but her characters won't fit the place."

"But, based on what you said about that world... I'm worried about her safety..." The green girl shows her worry towards the black hair junior, followed by her own one.

"Don't worry. The thing I'm more worried is to keep her around and not being kidnapped. I'm sure she won't be killed as long as I'm still be able to talk to her."

"Like I could be caught that easily! I'm not as loud as any of you!"

"Um... I think Rom is the quietest one here..." Her 'girlfriend' softly protests.

"Urgh, you know what I mean, Nepgear. Anyway, how much time you have left?"

"Just take what you need. Though, I suggest you to bring a lot of guns, as various as possible."

"Really? Why?"

"We're going to help the military, almost directly all the time. Unlike them who's strong in one or two points, we have our power to be able to carry all the tasks. If something goes wrong, we will head in and fix it."

"So you don't want to show our CPU's power much..."

"I want to keep it until the end, or in dire situations."

"How long will you be there, if she agrees?" The smallest Oracle asks.

"Maybe... I'm not sure. There are political problems that we can't interfere unlike before. And that A-hole makes the matter worse..."

"Don't tell me he's another Trick!" The pink of the twin shouts in disgust.

"Not on that level. But, to make a simple comparison, he's like Cardin in his racism."

"Is there another reason, other than peace, that you want to help them?" A certain princess of the nation asks in suspicion.

"No, why?"

"That country has the same name as my nation."

"That's for being my Earth's parallel. Anyway, I think it's enough for now. Let's start helping that world, shall we?"

* * *

Location: The Border town of Bruhl, Gallia

Year: E.C 1935

The Empire's army has crossed the border between its country and Gallia, thus breaking the treaty. Their focus was to invade and make the country under their control, since it has rich Ragnite deposits.

The military in town has only enough ammo and defense to fight back before everyone else could evacuate.

Primary objective: Protect the evacuation

Secondary objective: Pushing the Empire off the town

Assistants: A certain Candidate and a certain Undead

* * *

Inside Gunther's house, everyone's startled by the earthshake followed by sounds of explosions. With Isara and Martha safely crouching and avoiding the windows, Alicia and Welkin take a quick peak through them and duck immediately to not be turned into cheese by bullets piercing through fragile glasses. After the barrage, the girl plans to run off, but the boy holds her back. "It's too dangerous out there, and there's not much cover for us to run."

Alicia shouts back: "Then what can you suggest us to do? If we stay here, we all die."

"Actually..." The duo turns to the younger sister. "There's a way for us to get out of here safely."

After following her to the basement and hearing her explanation, they immediately lead the pregnant woman inside Edelweiss and prepare the tank to make it operational. Thanks to Isara's constant maintenance, it doesn't take too much time for the tank to start its engine. Alicia heads in first to take care of Martha, Isara follows and takes the wheel, and after looking at the basement one last time, Welkin jumps in and takes the command seat and closes the tank hatch...

Just in time before the soldiers come in and shoot at the tank. Not wanting to fight now, Welkin sends the order to Isara to drive the tank out of there. There are a few shots hitting the surface of Edelweiss, but other than scratching the paint, it does nothing else to try to kill the people inside. Once they're outside, Isara drives the tank through the road and ignores the foot soldiers shooting at them. Welkin can see the tanks blocking their way, and he asks Alicia to start fixing the main cannon's target. Once it points at the direction he wants which is the dirt ground before them, he is going to press the fire button...

When suddenly two of the tanks blow up, surprising both sides at once. Though, that one moment is enough for Isara to drive pass them with no further resistance, but she does have her own questions about that. While running, Welkin turns the cannon back so he can see what's going on, and he is greeted with a shock moment: before another tank blows up, he manages to see a bomb of some kind dropping straight through the hatch of the tank and dealing the damage. And when the soldiers' confusion hasn't stopped, slowly but surely, one by one gets shot straight in the head. Calculating the shots, he aims at the upper hill to see glimpse of something flashing occasionally. With his knowledge, he could tell that there's someone there using a sniper to shoot the Empire and save them. He is grateful for it, but that also raises questions: who is that person? Why is the person helping? And how did that bomb go so far?

* * *

"I know I said I wanted to destroy those tanks, did it have to be that flashy?" *Bang!*

"A little warning to the Empire. They won't know what could hit them." *Bang!*

"Still. Do you think they should have noticed us now?" *Bang!*

"Welkin noticed us, so I think..."

"THERE ARE SNIPERS ON TOP OF THE HILL!"

"Well, they found us. Let's go before they turn us into mince."

* * *

After running for a while, they reach the outskirts of the town, where some of the town watchers are covering the ground. They stop in front of one of the houses and Isara helps bringing Martha inside. Then, Alicia and Welkin explain the current situation, as the watchers also tell what happened in the town.

Then Welkin asks one of the watchers: "Did any of you fire a cannon before?"

The chief shakes his head. "We don't even have one. Why did you ask?"

He doesn't answer immediately as he asks Alicia: "Do you remember the tanks being blown up?"

Alicia: "I did. That was surprised though, what could have destroyed them like that?"

Welkin explains what he saw: "Before the third tank was blown, I saw a bomb or so dropping on its thread. Then, the soldiers got sniped down, causing more troubles to them. I did see a glimpse of the scope when I looked at the top of the hill, but I couldn't see who was there."

That raises a conversation between them about that person. But, guesses are just that. Alicia asks: "How many more are in the town?"

The chief answers: "Only a very few. But the Empire has pushed very far into the town..."

"Then we could use Edelweiss to make the job easier." Isara walks back to the group after making sure Martha is safe. "It's better in every aspect compared to the Empire ones."

The chief considers the suggestion... then he says: "That's our chance to save the rest. But... none of us can drive tanks, except you maybe..."

Isara nods, understanding what he said. "It will be fine. I have gone through that during the training."

The chief exhales in relief. "Sorry to put you into troubles..."

Alicia smiles and assures him: "We will be fine sir." She then turns to Welkin. "So, what do you say, the Son of Hero?"

Welkin scratches his head and asks something that makes Alicia dumbfounded: "Well... when should we retreat?"

The chief answers for her: "When everyone is out of the town. We don't much time left, so move on!"

* * *

"I should have seen that coming when I agreed to follow you."

"Well, to be fair, I followed your orders this time."

"*Sigh* Partly my fault when not explaining properly. So what now?"

"KILL BOTH OF THEM!"

"Ehm... your pick? You're in command, remember?"

* * *

10 minutes later

"Sir! All gates are being locked down! But those two have escaped! And the tank's nowhere to be found!"

The head commander *tsk!* in annoyance. Not once in his life would he find himself in such ridiculous situation. When that odd tank appeared, he already knew he's not going to hit it. But then, two of his tanks blew up for some reasons, and that thing took the moment to run pass them. A second later the last tank was gone, and then his soldiers were shot down one by one. After taking cover, one of his men spotted the ones who caused the troubles, and he immediately sent a few of his troops to take them down. But, those two got even a faster traveller with only TWO WHEELS, as one of them drove it and the other shot them down with her strange gun. After they lost sight, the commander ordered some others to track them down, while he himself entered the town.

After remembering them, the head commander orders his soldiers: "We will deal with them when they come. For now, let's head into their Headquarter! All troops, advance!"

* * *

"That's our chance." Alicia tells Isara, when all three (including Welkin) see the enemies. Isara steps on the pad and makes Edelweiss run towards the enemies, as Welkin shoots at the rear of a tank, stopping it from running anywhere else.

The commander of the Empire smirks as he shouts the order: "All tanks, shoot down that tank!" The smirk is there when one of his tanks shoots to Edelweiss, but it vanishes when the cannonball just deflects off the surface and crashes into a building. Not giving up, he shouts the orders again, and every unit in his command starts heading to the tank and shooting it. But what happens shocks him: The enemy tank is so agile that it dodges all the cannon shots, and once it fires, either the tanks are gone, or his soldiers are dead in the blast.

"What kind of monster is this..." He says his thinking out loud.

"Something you will remember before you die." He immediately turns back to see who just said it, only to feel a sharp pain in his stomach. Gasping in pain and looking down, he sees a blade stabbing through is abdomen, blood running out of the wounds. With fear in his eyes, he looks up to see the person's face, and the fear increases when he sees a Darcsens face with a terrified smile on his face. His legs weaken, as he grabs the person's shoulder to hold himself up, but the 'Darcsens'just forcefully pulls the blade and pushes him to the ground. Before he leaves the living world, through his eyes, the commander sees the person's strange outfit, then the bullets shoot at him and he just deflects them like it is nothing. Then that 'Darcsens' rushes towards, and when he turns his head, he sees his men being cut down brutally, while some of them get hit by bullets from somewhere... then, the world turns dark...

* * *

"That... is not a dream right?" Alicia asks loudly, stunned by what happened before them.

While they're fighting against the Empire's units, Isara catches a glimpse of a person slowly walks behind the commander. The commander turns around, and he just gets stabbed through the stomach and pushed down to the ground. Nearby soldiers notice it, turn back and shoot the mysterious killer. What surprises them is when the person just swings the sword around and cuts any bullets that come to him, then he runs directly towards the enemies and cuts them in half. Even adding to the shock, that person seems to have a very bug tube behind his back and a long gun hanging on his left shoulder, and yet his movements show no mistakes.

Because of the confusion, the Empire tanks temporarily turn their cannons to the person, causing Welkin to quickly take them down before it could shoot at the person. He manages to destroy two of them, before the third one successfully shoots. Another interruption occurs, when something flies past through the shot midair, blowing it up before it could reach the intended target. With a quick look, Welkin finds out the same flashing from the Sister Mills, which makes him be dumbfounded as the distance is too unreal to be true. Then, the person sheathes his sword and brings up his gun and shoots the people around him... for thirty seconds nonstop without reloading.

Alicia finally finds her voice back: "I... What was that? Who is that person?"

Isara answers doubtly: "At least he's not aiming at us... I think."

Welkin speaks his own thinking: "I'm more surprised by how the sniper could shoot the tank bullet in thin air like that... whatever the case, we will try to talk to him after this."

About three minutes later, the last survivors of the Empire's units have run away, leaving all destroyed tanks behind. Welkin carefully opens the tank hatch and observes the destruction around them, before looking at the mysterious person who's walking to them with the gun hanging on his shoulder again. Once the man's close enough, the commander of Edelweiss could see the person's black hair, his glasses reflecting the sunlight; he wears a white long coat over white shirt and black trousers, which makes Welkin wonder again how he pulled all those moves with that kind of outfit.

He tries to be friendly, as he waves his hand to the stranger. "Um, hello there. Thanks for helping us fighting those soldiers."

Luckily to him, the person gives the same gesture while smiling. "Yo! Nice to see you managed to evacuate people out of the town. That was really nasty from those guys attacking this place."

Welkin scratches his head and replies: "We just gave distractions for the others to escape. Anyway, my name is Welkin Gunther. What's yours?"

The person bows with his right arm in front of his chest. "Kuro, at your service." 'No last name? So he's a Darscens?' "As much as I want to talk more, more Empire units are coming, and soon this place will be in their hands. We better get out of here first."

Welkin nods at his answer. "You can come with us if you want."

"That's nice of you, but I have to pick up my sniper friend at the Mills. Can we meet each other in the hill West from here?"

"That's the direction we're heading to. Everyone is waiting for us there." Kuro salutes and heads to the car of the Empire's commander and drives away.

During the time they're heading out, Alicia asks Welkin: "Do you think he's like Isara?"

Isara disagrees: "He doesn't have anything like an accessory of Darscens."

Welkin gives out a guest: "Maybe he doesn't wear it yet?"

Isara: "Each of us must have one thing with our signature in it, being the scarf or hat and so on."

Alicia: "But it could be possible that he doesn't even know he's one?"

Isara gives that idea a thought. "...Could be. But I highly doubt it."

Welkin changes the subject: "Do you think letting the survivors of the Empire run away like that is okay?"

Alicia: "If we chase them down, who knows if we suddenly face their entire Army? Our plan was to save everyone, and it succeeded."

Welkin slowly nods at the answer. "It's for the best."

* * *

Later on...

"You're waiting for someone?" The chief asks Alicia, when he sees her and Gunther's siblings waiting next to Edelweiss. Gallia soldiers have started leading the people of the town to a nearby one for safety. The chief goes last but stops when he sees that.

Alicia answers: "It might sound weird to you, but... we met the one who blasted the tanks for us."

He widens his eyes in surprise. "Really? And you're waiting for him? Do you know who he is?"

Welkin answers: "We don't know sir. He only told us his name which is Kuro, and he's picking up a friend of him who used the sniper to take down the foot soldiers."

The chief asks again, not fully believing it: "Two of them defeating a group of Empire's soldiers and tanks? Are you sure he's making that up?"

Alicia says uncertainly: "That's remain to..."

"EMPIRE'S VEHICLE BEHIND US!" Immediately some of Gallia soldiers run past the group and point the gun to the far direction, with their tanks slowly turn their cannons to the location they spotted the vehicle.

Welkin borrows one of the binoculars and looks at the vehicle, to see Kuro driving to them with someone at the passenger seat. He then shouts up: "Hold your fire! That's not the enemy!"

As the soldiers of Gallia turn to him look at him like crazy, he explains: "The one driving the car is the one who saved us before. He used the car to pick up his friend."

One of them asks with doubt: "You sure about that? It could be a spy trying to infiltrate our lines."

Isara shakes her head in disagreement. "If that's the case, then he did a poor job in trying to stop himself from cutting those soldiers in half."

Everyone nearby cringes at the thought. Then, before they notice, the car has stopped in front of them, forcing them to go in defense stand. The driver jumps out of the car and fixes his coat, with the other just slowly opens the rear door and walks out. Everyone starts examining both of them, and they're very surprised. The man looks nearly like a Darscen, but his hair looks like it's pure black, and he doesn't have things with designs like Isara's. When they see the girl, she also has long black hair tied in two pigtails by black ribbon with white lines. The way she dresses is way too strange to them, being only a black dress with black arm warmers, black high socks and shoes. They could have thought she's another if not for her eyes: they are blood red.

Kuro bows again to greet: "A pleasure to meet you all. The name is Kuro, and this is..."

He gestures to the girl, as she does the same as him: "My name is Uni. Thanks for waiting for us."

The soldiers start murmuring with each other, but Welkin cheerfully greets back: "Hello again Kuro, and nice to meet you miss Uni."

Uni smiles back. "To you as well." Then she turns serious. "I think we should be on the move now. We saw a bigger group of those guys heading in the town already."

The chief sighs. "We don't have a choice do we?" Then he asks them: "What about you two? Would you follow us?"

Uni: "If we're given permission." There's a tint of playfulness in her voice just then.

The chief recognizes it and chuckles. "Well then..."

"Hold up." The leader of the Gallia troopers interrupts, as he tells the two: "Since we know nothing about you two, we have to ask you to follow us to our nearest military base."

Kuro looks at Uni and waits for her answer... and he has it: "We comply, but after we make sure everyone gets out of here safely."

One of the troopers retorts: "What makes you..."

The leader interrupts: "Fine to us, as long as you don't run. And handle your weapons."

Uni nods, and Kuro reaches to the backseat of the car and pulls them out with Uni. And everyone widens their eyes in shock at the sights of the weapons. The one in the girl's hand is definitely a sniper, but it has two sticks under the barrel, and it seems to have a magazine under it, unlike any snipers they have ever seen. The man pulls out three weapons: a green tube with a rectangle thing attached to it, a grey rifle with a round magazine attached near the buttstock instead of about the middle of the gun and with a sight, and a thin sword of all things.

Kuro then gently puts them down on the ground in front of the soldiers and Uni does the same. "Be careful with them, they're quite heavy except the sword."

As the soldiers start circling the weapons in wonder, Alicia asks the girl: "So Uni was the one who shot those soldiers?"

Uni: "Yeah, that's me, with Kuro using the rifle as well."

Isara asks Kuro: "Then the tube must be the weapon you used to blow those tanks, right?"

Kuro: "Pretty much." Then he chuckles as he notices a soldier trying hard to keep the tube on his shoulder without himself falling face first on the ground. "Someone help him please. There's a bomb inside." And everyone freezes in their places in fear, causing him to explain to calm them down: "It won't blow up if it's not fired, but it's very heavy for one person to hold it for a long time without support."

The chief nearly sweats when he remembers how easily Kuro brought it up with one hand. "Then you must be strong to hold it like it's nothing."

Kuro: "Have to adapt to situations. So, can we go now? The sun's going down soon."

* * *

**Weapons used by the others:**

**Intervention with Bipod and Suppressor**

**L82 LSW with Round Mag, Bipod and Red Dot Sight**

**Normal katana**

**FGM-148 Javelin with CLU**

**Cavaliere (DMC5 Motorcycle Devil Arm)**

* * *

**For those who has followed me for a while, you know who Kuro is. If not, then basically he's a Gary Stu. But he won't make it so that all battles are too easy to deal with. The main focus will be Uni helping Gallia friends WITHOUT most of her power.**

**I'm using all VC sources (Anime, Manga and even Games) so you will see the events are being mixed up for a bit, but not to the degree that makes you feel alien to this story.**

**If you feel like you have read this before, then I will tell you: I was inspired by 'Tesla soldiers', really good story. BUT don't expect me to do the same, I have my own ways to help Gallia.**

**I think that's enough for now. The update will be slow, but I hope it's worth for some of you. Chao!**


	2. Chapter 2

**Here is chapter 2 everyone. Looks like it haven't gained much attention, but, I don't really mind. As long as my passion is still there, I will keep writing.**

**Now, for the review:**

**To EfylNep: IF this story is written by somebody else, I would have been sympathized with you. But, being this story's creator, I nearly LAUGHED when I read your review. I think you must be new, at least to my stories. Keep reading, and you will see how I deal with VC world.**

**With that done, enjoy the new chapter everyone!**

* * *

Location: Gallia Militia Base, General Damon's Office

Time: 0900

After a night rest in Randgriz, one of the officers has called for Kuro and Uni to follow him to the local Militia Base to meet the current highest officer. During the travel, the Candidate notices the eyes of the people here focusing on them both. Though, Kuro has told her a little bit about the people, with one race being treated like they're lower than everything else. That somehow sounds like one of the worlds she heard about before... let's face it, all the times her partner was in any cases, it must have some racisms in it. Heck, her 'other' big sister is in that kind of world. At least they're not going to fight monsters here... Right now, with how both of them look, people could mistake them for that race.

"No offense, but you two are Darscens, right?" After 10 minutes or so, the officer suddenly asks out of blue. She answers by shaking her head. "Strange. Your hair color looks similar though."

Kuro answers: "We're far from the East. We're travellers of sort."

The officer raises his eyebrows in suspicion. "Travellers, with weapons like that?"

Kuro: "Like I said, travellers of sort. We go around and help people, that's what we do. A tour around the world is the bonus."

The driver asks: "Permission to ask: Why did you help the people of Bruhl? I mean, what's the benefits you will gain from it?"

Uni is a bit irritated at that, but she can't really blame it. If she's powerless like them, she could have abandoned the people there. She answers: "It's the right thing to do. And we will do anything in our power to make sure everyone can smile everyday."

The officer shakes his head. "That's admirable, but you can't save everyone..."

Kuro: "That's how cruel life is. But, 'The more alive, the better', that's how we see it."

The officer lets out a smile. "If everyone could think like you two... Ah, here we are."

After getting out of the car, the officer and the duo walk inside the base. During the walk, Uni sees soldiers training here and there, with some trainers taking note of their arrivals before shouting orders to the recruits. Then, the officer says: "Gallia military is not the best out of the three, but we try our best to train our men to their best performance."

Uni nods. "As long as your soldiers can take right actions in right time, then numbers can't say anything."

The officer nods proudly, then says: "If you're travellers, then you must have seen some military forces, right? Do you mind telling us some advices to improve ours?"

Kuro shrugs. "To us, it's nothing. But, each has their own advantages. Maybe if the higher authorities allow us to stay here, then maybe we could give you some, after seeing how you train of course. I can't just give away how the others work, right?"

The officer chuckles. "So be it." Then he sighs. "I don't know if we have much time to train them..." His eyes gaze at the new recruits. "The Empire really wants to take control of our nation, as they readily broke the treaty."

Kuro: "A human's heart is filled with greed and pride."

Uni follows: "But what makes them strong is how they use it to gain themselves power. It's not a wrong thinking, but pulling the others into your desires without their consents is always a bad thing to do."

The officer stops, making the duo stop as well. He turns back briefly to ask: "How old are you two?"

Kuro: "Twenty five."

Uni: "Seventeen."

He looks up and down, left and right between the two, then continues walking. "I have a strange feeling that you lied about your age. But..."

Kuro: "As strange as it sounds, that's our age. Don't question it."

The officer: "More like you will tell the higher ups and they will tell us." He then salutes to the nearby comrades. "Regardless, what will you do if you're not here?"

Uni: "We will travel again, as always. There are places we haven't discovered yet."

The officer then remembers one thing: "How did you get pass the boundaries between countries without noticed?"

Kuro shrugs again: "Beats me."

After a few more minutes, they head inside the office of General Damon after the officer knocks on the door. In there, the General himself is sitting with a woman, who, by the look of it, must be a high rank officer as well. Though, Uni immediately feels the bad vines coming from the General. 'That guy feels like a worse version of . At least Badd is a caring person.'

The woman stands up and orders: "Thank you Sergeant. You can leave now." The officer salutes and leaves the room, leaving the duo there. "You two, please take a seat."

After the two sit down, the woman introduces: "I am Captain Eleanor Varrot. And this is..."

The fat man interrupts: "I can introduce myself. My name is Georg von Damon, and I am the General here."

Uni and Kuro slightly bow at them, though Uni's feeling more uneasy the more she's in here. Not towards the woman, she seems nice enough, but that general... "It's nice to meet you two. My name is Uni, and my partner is Kuro."

Eleanor nods. "That's what we heard from our soldiers. We know that you're called here because of protocols, but..."

Damon interrupts again: "Were you with the Empire?"

Uni raises her eyebrows. "No? I thought you heard..."

Damon: "Then how did you get into our country with no records? You showed up just when the Empire broke the treaty and came in our country. If you're not with them, then how are you here?"

Kuro answers this time: "We're travellers of sort. We go wherever we want, and help everyone who we come across. Your country is just happened to be stayed in our trip."

Eleanor continues her speech: "That aside, we want to say our thanks for helping the people of Bruhl. If you're not there, the number of dead could be higher."

Damon just 'hmm': "Those two were just lucky that those Empire units were just scouts."

Uni says in a bit of annoyance: "I wouldn't say those tanks are just for scouting. Anyway, what more do you want to talk about?"

Eleanor answers: "It's about the weapons you possessed. We have never seen those weapons being so effective like that. Where did you get that?"

Kuro: "I'm assuming you rule out the katana?" A nod is the answer. "About the others, let's just say they are what's left of the people we couldn't save. The ones fight for the freedom of the others."

Damon smirks under his mustache. "Then, how about a trade?"

Uni: "A trade?"

Damon: "You show us what they're made of, and we will guarantee for your staying here..."

"That's a no." Kuro coldly answers. "Like yours, our weapons have secrets of military in it. We're not just showing them around that easily."

Eleanor briefly looks at the General, who's about to snap, then she gives out a different offer: "You said they have secrets in them, but how about you show us how to improve our owns to a near level like them?"

Kuro closes his eyes and thinks about it... After opening his eyes, he looks at the Candidate: "How does that sound, Uni?"

Uni blinks. "Wait, why... yeah, I forgot, I'm in charge this time." She then answers Eleanor: "We can do so. However, we do have some conditions from our sides."

Eleanor nods. "Name it."

Uni: "First, we're not your units to command. Think of us as mercenaries. You give us offers, and we will decide if we will do so or not based on what you offer. Second, about our weapons, we will have permission to carry them and not giving them to you if we don't want to. And about where we can stay..."

Eleanor suggests: "We have guest rooms here, so..."

Kuro suddenly says: "I think there's no need. We can stay with the soldiers here. After all, we do need to know the people we're working with."

Damon grits his teeth. "You are demanding way too much! We're not accepting all of them!"

Kuro smirks. "Fine to us. But, be careful, the Empire is coming nearer and nearer as we speak. And you're going to need all the helps you can get, right?"

Damon narrows his eyes in danger. He doesn't care about people talking bad about him, but that person just...

Eleanor suddenly says: "We will accept it. Welcome to Gallia, mister Kuro and miss Uni."

Damon glares at the woman in disbelief, as Kuro and Uni stand up and shake their hands with Eleanor to thank her. Uni then says: "If you don't have anymore questions, then we would like to go out now."

Eleanor nods. "If that's the case, then let me guide you around the base." And with Damon sitting there hanging his mouth in shock, the three walk out without another word to him.

* * *

"That person is on my nerve." Uni lets out an irritated sigh.

Eleanor: "My apologize for his words. He's not very... friendly towards strangers."

Kuro rubs his eyes a bit in annoyance. "In our travel, if we see somebody like him, we immediately know he would bring nothing but troubles."

Uni: "How could he even reach the rank of General with that attitude?"

Eleanor: "Nobody knows exactly, but it's probably due to the fact he has Noble blood inside of..." She then sees Uni facepalming instantly. "What's wrong?"

Uni answers with a sour face: "No wonder. It always has to be with Noble status, doesn't it?"

Kuro then notices someone before him: "Hey, isn't that... Hey, Alicia!"

The girl is talking with Susie when she hears the voice. The two turns back to see familiar face. "Hey, it's Kuro and Uni!"

Uni shakes off the sour feeling and she smiles at them. The girls walk towards the trio, and after saluting to Eleanor, the baker girl asks: "What are you two doing here?"

Uni: "We were just talking with the General, and miss Captain here is giving us a small tour. What about you two? And Gunther's siblings as well?"

Susie: "We're just being accepted into the Militia. We're trying to find some of our friends here."

Kuro then asks Eleanor: "Do you mind if they go with us? The more the merrier?"

Eleanor: "I don't. But the girls can only follow us to a point before they're being called."

* * *

Walking outside of the building and into the road, Alicia asks: "So you two are going to join Militia as well?"

Uni: "No. We're going to act as mercenaries. But maybe we're staying with you here."

Susie: "Why not Militia?"

Kuro: "It's because we're not Gallians..."

Uni snickers: "Are you sure you're not one?"

Kuro rolls his eyes. "I'm sure. Don't joke about it. Anyway, since we're not going to stay in Gallia for too long, we think that being a mercenary is a better choice."

Eleanor then suggests: "How about we pick up your weapons now, and you put a little showcase of them?"

Uni: "Well... we don't mind. But... are you currently free?"

Eleanor: "I could call this a military test. A weapon demonstration."

Uni temporarily sends a 'I know you all' to Kuro, before saying: "Sure. Let's go."

After grabbing the weapons, they head to the firing field. Uni is the first one to demonstrate the Intervention. She positions the Bipod to the ground, and lies down and positions herself for best performance. Loading the bullets into the chamber, she looks at the target through the scope, she steadies her breath... and pulls the trigger. The bullet travels through the barrel, exiting it with a soft exploding sound, and flies towards the head, imprinting itself into the marker.

After the first shot, half of her is expecting everyone to cheer. However, the other half recognizes a problem...

Eleanor says in confusion: "That's a good shot from you, miss Uni. But why is the sound so small?"

Uni sighs in recognition. "Yeah, I know the problem." She then reaches her hand towards the head of the barrel and takes off the suppressor. Then she continues with the remaining four bullets, all hit around the heart area. Then she turns the safety on and stands up, as the girls clap their hands. She nods and says: "Thanks for your watching."

Alicia says in awe: "Wow, I have seen a few snipers before, but this one could be the best one!"

Uni smiles at her remark. "It's not very heavy, so it could be brought nearly everyone, but at the cost of a little strenght decrease."

Kuro: "Though, those decreasing is not much if you can hit two persons at a time."

Susie: "Then it must be very powerful. But, what was the part you pulled out earlier, Uni?"

Uni: "Ah, that's the Suppressor. It's to silence the gun to a degree. Perfect to you if you want to go stealth."

Alicia: "No wonder we couldn't hear your gun sounds."

Eleanor: "It will be a huge help if we know how it works."

Kuro then brings up his weapons. "We can tell you the mechanic about it. Now, you might want to wear earmuffs if you want to join me in this."

They move to a different place. During the time Kuro prepares, Eleanor asks Uni: "Is that gun really that loud?"

Uni: "You will see."

Kuro aims the Red Dot to the body part, and slowly fires 3 shots to it. The girls now can see why he warned them earlier, but they're a little disappointed that it's not as they expected.

Even the soldier who happens to shoot next to them has to say: "I thought it would be louder, but it's just like our guns."

Kuro just smirks. "Oh, don't underestimate it. I'm just testing it."

Uni suddenly puts her fingers in her ears. "You should do this now."

The others decide to follow, their curiosity and confusion remain. Then, Kuro holds down the trigger, and bullets continuously fire off the gun, sounds become louder and louder as the time passes. With the last bullet coming out, the target is shredded to pieces with the head hanging there for a second before falling to the ground, and the gun's barrel heats up and releases smoke.

He turns on the safety of the gun, stands up and smirks at the Gallians' shocked expression. "Told you, didn't I?"

Alicia finally finds her voice back: "A...are you sure you just used a rifle? That looked like you were just firing a machine gun!"

Kuro kneels down and pulls the mag out. "This is the reason. This mag holds a total of a hundred bullets, and this gun's fire rate is about the same as a machine gun, so calling it either way is okay."

The soldier next to them is so shocked he can't say a word. Eleanor meanwhile thinks about the possibilities through her surprise. "If we could make those mags and puts them into the guns..."

"I suggest to be careful with it." Kuro interrupts her thought. "If you want to, we will help, but we have to see if the weapon is capable to use this kind of mag. Its bullets are very strict on picking the right ones."

Susie then points to the Javelin. "How... how about that one?"

Uni: "I suggest we should have a preparation before using it. It needs a large field to use it."

Eleanor: "We do have a field for Lancers to..."

Kuro then chuckles. "I think we should hold it for a little surprise for everyone. We will test on their tanks instead of ours, otherwise it would be a waste."

Uni smirks at that. "Show off."

Kuro just pokes his tongue out. "You know me. Anyway, I think it's enough for the morning. Let us get some real work done."

* * *

Location: Dormitory

Time: 2100

"So this is where we live now?" Uni asks out loud as she observes the room. It looks just like the ones she sees in Gamindustri and Earth, except just a little smaller.

Alicia replies: "It is. Hope you like it."

Uni: "It is okay. I have seen worse."

After settling down, Susie asks Uni: "How long have you known Kuro?"

Uni: "About... fifteen years or so."

Alicia: "Wow. So he's your childhood friend?"

Uni: "... Something along the lines. He helped our big sisters before..."

Edy Nelson, their roommate, asks: "So you have a big sister?"

Uni nods. "A hardworking person, the most hardworking one out of four of them..."

Edy: "It must be hard to have a big sister, since I have one younger sister, and I know she's trying her best to be as good as I am."

Uni: "It is sometimes. But we always help each other, no matter what situations we are in."

Susie changes the subject: "If you're going to act as mercenaries, that means you're not going to join us much?"

Uni: "I think we will stick with your squad. Kuro sees something in you all... and we made an agreement to be able to decline orders from that General." She falls on her back to her bed. "That bastard... I don't know what he did, but I know he's bad news."

Alicia: "You mean General Damon?"

Uni: "Who else? I don't believe one bit that guy is capable to be a soldier at all. Hell, if I dare say, that guy's more of a selfish businessman at best."

Susie nervously replies: "I don't think you should say that."

Uni: "I say what I want to." Then something rings up, as the others look around in confusion. Then they focuses on Uni, who is now having a black rectangle thing in her hands. "Sorry, that's mine." She then brings that up to her left ear. "Hey Nepgear? Yeah, we're okay..."

The other girls are a bit stunned, and they now recognize what that thing is. Alicia whispers: "That's a phone, right? It's definitely one."

Susie: "But it connects to nothing, right?"

Alicia: "You remembered how advance their weapons... Uhm, Uni, can I borrow your sniper?" With a nod as her answer, the baker grabs Intervention and shows it to Edy.

Edy then sees a flaw logic: "Wait, how can she carry her weapon so freely like that?"

Susie: "I think it's because she and Kuro are not Militia." When Alicia pulls out the mag, it's empty, but they can imagine how big the bullets could be based on the space. "I wonder if she have gone through solo missions before..."

"You want to meet the girls?" The three snap their heads to Uni, who just puts down the 'phone' and presses something on it, and then... she shows the screen for the three to see. And they're all shocked that they could see the person who just talked to Uni: A girl with long natural lilac hair, with a cross hair clip at the left. She's around the black hair girl's age, with her main theme color being purple, if that purple eyes don't give away that. And she also has a round necklace for some reasons.

The girl bows down to greet the stunned girls. "Hello everyone! My name is Nepgear! I hope Uni didn't give you much troubles when she's there."

And with that Uni blushes and protests: "Hey! That's not nice!"

Nepgear giggles. "I can't help but be worried about you."

Snapping out of their states, the trio bows back to greet as Alicia introduces: "Hello Nepgear. My name is Alicia Melchiott, the one at my right is Susie Evans, and the other is Edy Nelson."

Edy then asks: "It's a bit rude, but why don't you have a family name as well? And you don't look like a..." She leaves the words there.

Nepgear tilts her head. "Most of us don't have one. Why..."

Uni interrupts: "I think that's enough. Is there anything else you want to say Nepgear?"

Nepgeat just smiles 'innocently'. "I just want to wish luck to my girlfriend, that's all. Goodbye Uni and everyone!" Leaving the embarrassed girl there, she just turns off the phone with no further words.

The Candidate pockets the phone and grunts. "Baka Nepgear. Do you have to say it in front of everyone?" And of course, she understands why she's being stared at. "Yes, she's my girlfriend, you happy?"

Edy is the first recover, as she says: "So you swing that way, huh? I just thought you and that Kuro could be a couple."

Uni: "He has his own." Then she looks out at the window to see it's dark enough. "We should rest now. From tomorrow you will meet your squad leader, and it will be the beginning of your real training to fight for your home."

* * *

The next day

Location: Captain Varrot's Office

Time: 0700

'Are you kidding?' Alicia mentally screams. Captain Varrot just announced her to be Welkin, whose rank is Second Lieutenant, subordinate. She, of course, has to accept that fact, doesn't mean she's going to like that.

"Also..." Eleanor interrupts her thought. "Kuro and Uni, while they're not in Militia, will be under your squad's care, as they will provide supports for us in this war."

Ignoring the murmurs behind her about who the Captain just said, Alicia mentally cheers: 'I am not the only one who has to suffer Welkin's weirdness!'

After the briefing, Alicia walks out of the room with much better mood. Being clueless as ever, the leader of squad 7 asks: "You seem to be in a happy mood. What's the occasion?"

Alicia denies: "Nothing, nothing at all."

"There you are." The two look forward to see Uni, with modified Gallia Militia uniform. "I suppose that, when we are working with you, we should wear the same like you."

Even without the badges, she looks like she's higher rank than both of them. Alicia walks to her and examines the outfit. "That looks good on you. Does Kuro wear one?"

Uni: "He refuses, unfortunately. Though, I can understand, he doesn't like being in military much as it would 'constrict his freedom'."

Welkin: "Well, we can't force you. Oh and, you're going to be under the care of squad 7. By the way, do you know where Kuro is?"

Uni gestures them to follow her. When they're out of the building, the Candidate points up to the rooftop of the building. They follow, and their eyes widen. Standing dangerously on the edge is Kuro, with his binoculars, looking at a direction far away.

Uni notices the duo's expression, and she giggles. "You will see lots of this in the future." Then she shouts: "Hey, Kuro! Jump down now! We're going to meet squad 7!"

Kuro puts down his binoculars and salutes to her, then jumps off the rooftop and lands on his feet softly. He then says: "Well, let's go everyone! They won't like seeing their leaders being late, will they?"

Alicia's mind finally comes back, and she screams inside: 'TWO OF THEM? WHY DO WEIRDOS HAVE TO BE IN THE SAME SQUAD AS I AM?'

* * *

**That's it, for now guys. Hope you enjoy it. I'm not planning to write this story as long as my main ones, but if I see fit, I will increase the number of words in future chapter.**

**See you in the future!**


	3. Chapter 3

**Chapter 3 is out! Not much to talk for now, so enjoy everyone!**

* * *

Time: 0800

Location: Tank Hanger

"Everyone, line up!" After gathering up the soldiers, Alicia continues: "Now, our new assigned commander of Squad 7 will give a welcome speech." With a quick look around the team (Kuro and Uni has stood in the first line), Alicia says: "Okay, Wel... Lieutenant Gunther, please go ahead."

Welkin gives an assure smile to the nervous girl: "It's okay, Alicia. Don't have to force yourself." He then turns to the rest of the squad. "I am Welkin Gunther, and I will be fighting alongside with you from today onward. Nice to meet you."

Everyone gives him a welcome and respect salute. Welkin continues: "At ease, everyone."

Everyone follows. Though, the oldest member of the squad, Largo Potter, briefly turns away unimpressed. "Damn greenhorn from university. No experiences in combat, and yet he is already appointed to lead a squad already."

The female Trooper next to him, Brigitte 'Rosie' Stark, agrees. "His way of talking is getting on my nerves."

Noticing them, Alicia checks on their details through the profile. 'Those two are already expressing their hostility towards Welkin already. Can't blame them.' She thought for herself, remembering that she was also feeling the same.

Welkin speaks: "First of all, there is something I want to ask you all. What's the most important thing in combat?"

"Isn't that too obvious? It's all about experiences!" Largo loudly answers.

Welkin nods. "That's an important thing. But it's not the most important." Largo looks back at Welkin in confusion, as the Commander answers: "Your life is the answer."

Everyone gasps in surprise and confusion. Then Largo expresses his mind: "That's nonsense."

"Welkin's correct." Everyone looks at Kuro, who's smirking. "Largo's answer, experience. It's important, and it will help you much in the battlefield. However, if you die, those things aren't matters anymore. Knowing how to live and survive is the most important thing, not only in the battles or war, but also in your daily life."

Welkin nods, and continues: "During the time we're here, there will be times of happiness, sadness, pain and such. But, we can only know that when we're alive. Die, and everything is over. As the leader of Squad 7, I will do my utmost best to protect everyone's life. So I hope you could do the same and stay alive as well. That's all."

Alicia smiles at Welkin's answer, and looks around to see everyone thinking about it as well. But she could see the unsatisfied looks on Rosie and Largo's face. She sighs, as she knows it will be taking time to make them on Welkin's side.

Then, a hand shots up. Welkin sees it and asks: "Yes?"

"Karl Landzaat. And may I ask why we have a non-Militia in our squad?" Everyone else nods as well, wanting to know why.

Welkin answers: "For that... Kuro, can you go ahead and introduce yourself?"

Kuro nods and steps forward and stops next to the leader. He then faces the squad and says: "My name is Kuro, and I will be under your care. I will act as a mercenary, but I will do my best to work together with you all."

Murmurs start, as they're wondering why the Militia needs a mercenary at all. Then, Dallas asks: "But if you're a mercenary, then what class you would be IF you're working with us?"

Kuro: "Think of me as a Jack-of-all-trades."

Largo doesn't believe, obviously. "Jack-of-all-trades? I doubt you could even lift up a lance."

Kuro shrugs. "We will see about that."

And now Alicia has another one to look out. 'Great. Kuro joins the mess as well.'

Luckily, Welkin decides to end it: "I think our meeting up time is enough now. Dismiss everyone."

* * *

Time: 1500

Same location

"A university student as our leader and a mercenary in our squad? We really drew the short stick here." Largo complains. A group of Squad 7 has gathered around and rested next to a tank.

"And not only that..." Rosie looks at Edelweiss to see Uni and Kuro sitting on it talking with Isara. "That girl with the cape, she's definitely a Darscen. Though, I'm not too sure about the other two. Both are mercenaries, both don't have a last name, but they are different from the Darscens."

Oscar says: "They also wield those powerful guns as well. Just where could those two from?"

Largo: "No matter. We will make sure who's the boss around here."

* * *

Briefing time

Location: War room

"Our line of defense has been pushed further back into our territory by the Imperial Army's invasion." Captain Varrot summaries the situation to the squad leaders. "But, we're not letting them pass. The Military, including Militia, is in the process of reorganizing its forces. Once the preparation is done. we will proceed to retaliate swiftly." She then points to the blackboard, which draws the map of a location with arrows signalling the points and positions of attacks. "Our first objective is Vasel Town. It's a vital point of transportation. The Vasel Bridge connects the main road to the capital city of Randgriz."

"In another word..." Faldio makes a conclusion. "If we lose the bridge, it's over."

"Exactly." Varrot nods. "After all preparations are complete, we're heading right to Vasel Town immediately. All squads, make preparations to move out!"

"ROGER!" The squad leaders acknowledge. Though, unknown to them, one who doesn't belong here is hiding, hearing all the plans.

'If things are going to be that easy...'

* * *

A few days later

Location: Road to Vasel Bridge

"Hey, Alicia." Noticing the girl being a little uptight, Welkin decides to start conversation. "Why don't you just relax a bit? Being like that would make you lose your breath when the time comes."

Alicia is not very happy. "Then you're asking me to go happy-go-lucky with a leader like you?"

Welkin laughs it out. "How unforgiving you are. But yes. You see Kuro and Uni, they're still being as themselves."

Alicia hums in annoyance. "They are mercenaries, so there's no reason for them to be so worrying."

Welkin: "But remember when Kuro fought those soldiers? He kept that smile during the whole time."

Alicia: "That's because..."

Welkin: "And the Military has already departed first, so I'm sure Vasel Town is already under our control." Then he notices pillars of smoke afar... rising from the Vasel Bridge.

One of the nearby soldiers brings his binocular up and observes... "Gallian troopers are running away from Imperial's tanks! We are losing the fight!"

"Unfortunate, it is." Kuro walks to the edge of the street they're walking on. "With that many tanks, the Military down there stands no chance in taking the town, and many lives has lost."

Largo says out loud: "So? Lost in war is inevitable."

"The more I want to hear is, how many we can save." Kuro puts the L82 LSW to the ground and kneels on the grass, and puts Javelin on his right shoulder. "Better giving them a chance to save lives." He looks through the CLU and starts targeting one of the tanks.

"Hey, what are you planning to shoot at?" Edy walks to him.

Kuro notices that and turns back. "Edy, don't stand right behind me please." Once she complies, he explains: "I'm aiming at those tanks on the bridge. It won't stop the Imperial, but it could buy us some time to pull out safely."

The soldiers nearby who hear the conversation widen their eyes in shock. He is planning to shoot a tank from this location? Even Edy can't believe it. "You can't be serious! That was like three clicks away!"

Kuro shrugs and takes aim again. "Then you can watch and enjoy it." After a few seconds the CLU beeps, signalling that it has successfully locked on a tank. "The wonder of modern technology." Then he pulls the trigger, and the rocket launches.

Though, everyone has a mini heart attack when they see the missile nearly drops to the ground, before the rocket flies straight to the air. They all follow the trace of the missile, a little bit disappointed that the shot misses...

Then Kuro loads out a second missile. Alicia then tries to stop him: "Wait, Kuro! That shot just missed..."

"Who said I missed? Just follow the missile and you will see." Not taking Alicia's warning, Kuro takes aim again. The girl then feels the tap on her shoulder, she turns right to see Welkin pointing the the sky. She looks up and sees the missile suddenly falls down and heads to the bridge. Uni gives Alicia a binocular and she looks through it. After about three seconds, the missile heads straight to the hatch of a tank, collides and explodes the tank into oblivion. Then she hears the sound of missile ejecting, and another one flies to the sky in the same manner.

Everyone looks at the mercenary in disbelief. After third one is shot out, Kuro stands up and starts walking. Noticing everyone has stopped, he shouts: "Hey! Don't forget our mission! We're heading to the town as fast possible!"

Everyone is still in shock state. He just shot three missiles into the air and blew up three Imperial's tanks, and now he just casually walks away like nothing happened.

"That's Kuro for you." Uni's voice snaps them back to reality. "Anyway, let's go. Remember our mission?"

* * *

Later

Location: Bank of Vasel River

"Look at this place." Welkin and Alicia are watching the destruction the previous fight has caused. Many building have collapsed, the ones still standing now have massive holes on it. The road's filled with destroyed tanks and... Welkin expresses his worriness: "The other bridges are destroyed, so all forces will focus on this one as the mean to transport. With time coming through, the battle will drag on with more casualties."

Alicia says: "I think Kuro is also aware of it. When we reach this place, he has dropped his smile till now."

"He is a person who wants to cloak his worries with a smile, but only to a certain point. Sounds like what my father would do."

"GET OUT OF OUR SIGHT THIS INSTANT!" Hearing the shout of Rosie, the duo immediately rush to the scene, to see Kuro standing before Isara, covering her from Rosie and Largo. Some of the other soldiers have headed to the scene as well.

"Do you have to be so loud? She could be wherever she wants to go." Kuro talks coolly to the Trooper, but his face shows that he's disliking this situation.

Rosie changes the target of her anger: "And you! I don't know who the hell you are, but siding with that girl..."

"Is to help Gallia fighting this war." Uni interrupts. "She is a Gallian as well. If we don't side with her, then who would help us fighting against those Imperial guys?"

"There are plenty more that we can help." Largo disagrees. "We don't have to rely on people like her."

"What's going on here?" Alicia asks when she reaches the place.

Rosie notices the duo come, and she answers: "Ah, just in time." She fully turns to Welkin. "Mister Commander, let me make this clear. I'm not going to fight alongside with a Darscen."

"Same sentiments here." The Lancer agrees with the Trooper. "For ages, the Darscens are said to bring disaster."

"Hey, let me..." Weikin tries to talk it out.

And Largo is not going to let that happen. "Don't bother. Nobody will follow the orders of a boy who has never seen real battles before."

"That's all?" All turn to Kuro, who's smirking disdainfully. "For a boy who is just over 30, you really think you have seen everything."

Now that triggers the person in question. Largo shouts back to him: "A boy? Who do you think you are?"

"Kuro, a mercenary. Didn't I tell you?" The smirk is still there. "And you, Rosie. What makes you hate the Darscens so much? Did they do pranks on you too much? If that's the case, then how pity you are, working up too much on something so simple."

Rosie is not having any of that. "You are just around for a few days! You didn't even know what a Darscen is before! Don't try to lecture us or..."

"Or perhaps, a minority of them has caused the lost of someone you love?" The question is voiced out by a serious tone from Kuro. The Trooper sees him stop smiling at once and look at her dead in the eyes. "Hatred always starts when you lose something dear to you. Hatred is what brings your own destruction. Breaking down from the inside, to the point you don't want to hear the real truth and blindly follow your own. Hatred is slowly clouding your judgment, making you turn into the very person you hate the most. That's not just about the Darscens, but also the people you never knew fully and you judge them just by their looks or their acts through a few seconds. I help you, not just about your freedom from the Imperial, but also from your tortured souls. With the mind you have right now, you will end up killing your own people."

Every single word is like a nail to the coffin. Rosie backs out in fear of the person in front of her. She has been lectured around before, but none of them sounded like this... but she collects herself and talks back: "So what? Even when that's the truth..."

"Then you are blinded by your rage. What a few people have done is not what everyone would do. Life or death events are what challenge human to choose, whenever they control their inner devils or let them take over their actions. In the end, one will win, one will lose. The matter is what is next."

Rosie slowly puts her right hand on the buttstock of her gun. She's on the edge of shooting the person immediately, as she can feel the deadly aura he's giving to them...

Then it suddenly goes away, as Kuro turns to Largo. "You said you won't listen to a person who's inexperienced? Tell me, how well could you gain knowledge?"

Largo, snapping out of his daze, asks back: "That's not specific at all."

Kuro: "Kay then. How much time do you need to shoot a gun?"

Largo: "Heh? After a few weeks or so..."

"A second." Everyone looks at Welkin in disbelief. "To shoot a gun, you have to pull the trigger."

Kuro nods. "Exactly. Welkin, in this matter, what would you do to prove that you can lead this squad?"

Welkin turns to Largo. "Let's make a bet, shall we?" When he gets everyone's attention, he continues: "All of us are conflicting about following my orders or not. How about this, in forty eight hours, I will reclaim the bridge with just Squad 7. No help from Kuro or Uni. If that happens, you will follow my orders after that. Do you agree?"

"And if you fail, you will resign your position as a leader." Largo concludes the bet. "You better not hold back your words, kid."

With his usual smile, Welkin answers: "Then we have a deal." He turns to Kuro. "For this moment, please don't join the fight..."

Kuro points his index finger up and moves it left to right. "I won't interfere with your plans. However, I'm not going to sit around if there's a risk your comrades could be killed."

Uni then suggests: "We can protect you from far sides with our snipers. Would it be okay?"

Welkin nods. "It's for the best. Thank you two."

Kuro then walks off the group and heads to the riverside. But before he leaves the others' sight. "Currently, your opponents are the Imperial, not each other. Point your guns to them." And with that, he leaves.

Uni sighs, earning her everyone's stare. "Seriously, he's over-sensitive sometimes."

Rosie points to the direction Kuro just went. "You call THAT over-sensitive? I felt like he's planning to kill us all!"

Uni understands that. "I know, he did the same thing like that when our sisters are lazy, but in lower level. Anyway, don't pick on anyone just because of how they look. Darscens bringing disaster? I feel like you're pulling our legs here."

"Darscens Calamity." Isara gains the Candidate's attention. "It was recorded that, because of Ragnite, many tribes of Darscens have fought each other to gain it for themselves. Then the Ragnite powered weapons were unleashed and killed millions of animals and people in the process."

Uni waits for her to continue... but that's it. "Wait... that's all?"

Isara asks in confusion: "You were expecting more?"

"As a mattter of fact, yes! That was just what us human do, not just the Darscens alone!"

Largo and the others protest: "Hey! We are not that..."

"If you replace Damon with Darscens... think about it. I'm out." Uni concludes the conversation before running to where Kuro could be.

That drops Squad 7 in total silence... it's true many of Damon's operations were failed and they costed lives of many soldiers... but to compare that to the Calamity... a shudder thought they don't want to rethink again.

* * *

"You didn't have to do that." Uni berates the other Deity. "That nearly blew up our covers."

"Don't worry about it." Kuro assures. "Since they know about Valkyrias, I suspect they would think of us as the same."

"From what I have read, all of them seem to be females..."

"Records are records. Those are facts, but not necessary the truth. One of them can't view the whole point of one matter."

Uni sighs and shakes her head. "If we didn't know you, we would say you are babbling. Anyway, about Welkin being the leader..."

"He's like Ruby to be honest. Replace cookies and milk with nature or vice versa, and you have either."

"I feel like those two can get along well... and Weiss and Rosie for some reasons... you think Welkin could do it?" After noticing Kuro's half-grin, Uni knows the answer. "I will take that as a yes. So, which sniper rifle are you going to use?"

"As loud and as far as possible."

* * *

Time: Next day, 0500

Location: Vasel River bank

"You are expecting us to cross the bridge?" Rosie asks the leader of squad 7 in disbelief. "While the fog could cover us, there are still Imperial soldiers shooting blind at us and it could hit at worst moments."

Welkin shakes his head and points to the river. "That's not my plan. We are crossing the river directly, with the tank as well. I found a stretch shallow enough for the tank to pass through. Edelweiss is equipped with water-resistant measures that could hold enough time for submersion."

Largo looks at the river, doubtfully that it would work. That thought gets thrown out of window when Uni supports the idea: "The tank's weak points have been covered, so it's no longer a problem for the tank to pass through. The materials for them are good enough to deal with water pressure."

Alicia then re-explains the plan: "First, the Edelweiss will cross first and clear out any patrols of Imperial. Then, Lieutenant Gunther will send up a flare when succeeds, and we will follow up by boat. From that point, we attack and retake the bridge. Are we clear?"

Seeing that no one's arguing, Welkin concludes: "Alright then. From this point, the operation starts! We will see you all on the other side!"

"By the way..." Alicia then asks Uni: "Did you see Kuro?"

Uni points her thumb to the clock tower. "He's going to raise hell to the Imperial. We just have to do our works right."

Rosie looks at the direction and asks: "What is he planning to do, sitting afar from the battlefield?"

Uni: "Oh, you will be surprised. Everyone will be."

* * *

Location: Depth of Vasel River

"It works well." Welkin comments. So far the water hasn't leaked in yet, and the tank's still running smoothly through the river. "Kuro did approve that when we told him our plan."

Isara doesn't say anything about that, causing Welkin to ask: "Hey, Isara? You okay there?"

"I felt like Kuro was hiding something." She answers. "Being travelers despite their young ages? It could be possible, but the knowledge they possess seems to be way beyond our own."

Welkin understand, and he knows everyone has the same thought. "I know. But right now, he's our ally, along with Uni, and they don't seem to be bad people."

"Be careful, Welkin. I see a tank on the road next to the river bank, 1 o'clock from your position. You will meet three patrols when you get out of the river as well."

The commander suddenly hears the voice of the male mercenary. He asks back: "Is that you, Kuro?"

"Who else? Also, I saw the water starting to pass through the protection, so better fasten up." And with that, the radio turns static.

Isara asks in surprise: "He could see where we are under the river?"

"With advanced weapons like that, we can be certain they have more than we know."

* * *

Location: The opposite bank of Vasel River

"Hm? You hear that?" One patrol asks.

The others start focusing on their hearing. Then the second one answers: "I hear it now. What is it?"

The third one locates the direction of the sound, as he faces the river. "It seems to come from the river..." He narrows his eyes to try to see through the fog...

And widens his eyes in shock when he sees the Gallia tank coming out of the river and landing on the bank, and it starts heading right towards two of his comrades, crushing them with its weight. Running away in shock, he's heading straight to the Imperial tank to try to warn it, but Edelweiss has already blown it up with its main cannon. Knowing that it's not safe anymore, he tries to head to the nearest station... when he sees a flash in his eye corner. The moment he turns to see what it is... darkness consumes him.

* * *

Uni rubs her ears in a little pain. "That's loud..."

Everyone's following her, as Alicia asks: "Uni, I thought your gun was loud enough..."

"He's using a completely different one. A modification of an already powerful sniper rifle..."

Largo: "Just what kind of weapons are you possessing?"

Uni doesn't answer that, and thankfully she can change the topic as she sees the flare. "Let's finish this mission, everyone. The coast's clear."

* * *

After shooting the flare, Welkin looks at the poor soldier who got shot in the face. His head is no longer there, with the helmet completely shatters. He shivers when he sees the scene, then he turns to the direction of the shooter. "Kuro, do you have to do that?"

"What do you expect? I shot from distances away, so I have to pick bigger bullets." The mercenary's voice can be heard through his headphone. "Anyway, the Imperial is alerted, but your squad has reached the bank and they are attacking now. Regroup and take back the bridge. Uni will cover you all directly."

"Thanks for your information." When Kuro's voice could no longer be heard, he says to himself: "So he chose that place so he could overview the entire place..." Then he sees his comrades. "Better get moving then."

* * *

"Status!"

"Gallia soldiers! Unknown numbers!"

"Where the hell are they coming... ARGH!" One clean bullet stops the man's speech, and the rest immediately dodge behind the wall again.

"Nice shot." Marina Wulfstan compliments on Uni's kill. "Could that gun be mass produced?"

"Possible, but we're not giving out its designs. Though I could lend you the weapon sometimes."

"Thanks." An ear-piercing sound cuts through the air as two Imperial troopers are shot down instantly. "How can he even shoot from that far? Before that, how could he look through the fog?"

Uni sighs. "That's Kuro for you. Finding the most ridiculous way to upgrade a weapon."

From below, the Imperial soldiers are in completely chaos. First, they are unexpected that Gallia managed to sneak their soldiers to the other side of the bridge with a tank as well. Then, their covers are like papers due to an unknown sniper (they found out there are snipers in the field, but not from afar) with some overpowered bullets that pierce through even TANKS! Not once in their battlefield times have they fought the mess like this. And all of them now are thinking: Just what have Gallia possessed for themselves?

"Hey, did anyone feel like this happened before?" One of the Imperial soldiers suddenly remembered about their failures when they tried to cross the border of Gallia.

"You want to talk about that massacre in Bruhl?" Another recognized it, before poking his head out and shooting a few shots to squad 7 before retreating to the another wall. "You were saying those piercing shots were from that one person?"

"I don't believe so. He was recorded to use sword in the middle of the gunfight. Though there could be a second person..."

"You should have run instead of staying here and talking." All soldiers nearby point their guns at the unknown voice, however, in a blink of an eye, all the barrels are cut in pieces. They all look at who's talking, to see a person wearing a white trench coat and holding a sheathed sword in his left hand, with his right one holding the handle. "Though, that's to be expected. Your Imperial doesn't care much about your life, as they told you not to run. I'm giving you a chance to run, so better keep moving pals."

First, they're surprised that someone just appeared right in the middle of the group unnoticed. Then they see the sword and they know, they're facing the living rumor. One of them pulls out a knife and tries to stab the man, but he just sidesteps and kicks the soldier's leg, making him fall flat to the ground. "Now now. I'm being mercy here. Don't give me a reason to kill all of you, please. I don't really like killing that much."

And of course, they don't listen, as they pull out their remain guns and open fire at him, and he responds by cutting down all the bullets. Once they're all out of bullets, the Imperial soldiers look at the opponent in disbelief that he hasn't missed a single strike. Then, they hear the words of death behind their back: "Guess you want to die. I will grant it for you all."

From afar, some of the members of Squad 7 witness the mercenary turning all the foot soldiers of Imperial into minces with his sword strikes. In a blink of an eye. Alicia's lower jaw drops in surprise. There are two reasons for that: First, it's how he survived the barrages of bullets. And second: "Since when did he get here so fast?" Then the ear-piercing sound rings up again, and this time the engine of a tank gets hit, and it blows up the whole thing. "... Who's shooting then?" Then 'Kuro' just disappears in front of them in a blue light. "...Who's with me in interrogating Kuro later?" She receives nods from everyone around her.

* * *

Time: 0800

Squad 7 has recaptured Vasel Bridge and the Imperial Army has retreated. Right now every Gallia transport is running through the bridge for unit and supply transportation. Squad 7 has relaxed themselves after the fight early in the morning...

"So, you are following his orders from now on. I hope you're not backing on your words." Alicia says to Largo and Rosie, smiling that the winner in the bet is Welkin.

The Lancer leader chuckles. "Well, I lost, so I will have to do so. Still, it's nice to see that our leader DOES have qualities to be one."

Rosie nods. "Same side. But, about the Darscens..." She briefly glares at Isara who gulps a bit in nervous, then sighs. "Don't expect me to work with them." She then stands up and walks away, leaving Alicia and the girl in a little despair.

"Wait..." Welkin stops Alicia by grabbing her shoulder before she can walk further.

"Alicia, let her go for now. At least she did acknowledge what we have talked about."

Alicia sighs about it. "I hope she could get over it soon..."

"Soon or later. It will be a long way for her to forgive the past." Everyone turns to see Kuro standing next to Edelweiss. "Yo. That's a good fight you put there."

As Kuro walks to them, Largo stands up and tries to grab his shoulder... "Hey! You said you won't go..." Only for his hand to go straight through his body, much to everyone's surprise, and the Lancer nearly falls to the ground... if the real Kuro doesn't catch him immediately.

"Be careful there, Largo. Don't go senile on us after the fight like that." Kuro just chuckles after seeing everyone's face, as he lets Largo lean on his body and straighten himself up. "I'm sure you have many questions..." 'Kuro' just casually walks to Uni, who just shakes her head disapprovingly.

"OBVIOUSLY! WHY ARE THERE TWO OF YOU?" Alicia immediately shouts as she points to both Kuro in frightened.

Kuro then raises his hand watch up, facing the clone. Then the image collapses in a blue light before being absorbed into the watch, startling everyone. "Another piece of technology. It creates a clone of yourself, standing independent or controlled by you. But a massive drawback for the later is that you will lose half of your vision to the clone, causing a bit of headache if not training properly."

Uni pinches her nose bridge as she says: "That's why you stayed up in the clock tower so that you could focus your remain vision to use the sniper rifle and the other to control the clone." She earns a nod of confirmation.

Another sniper of the squad, Cezary Regard, asks: "Then where is that sniper rifle of yours? Uni here used one..."

Kuro's right shoulder shines up with a column of similar blue light from before, then it disappears to reveal a heavy-looking sniper rifle. "Barrett M99, one of my favorite. I have even adjusted it a bit more, and the result...well, you saw it."

Another two surprises: One, that's one heavy and strong rifle. Two: "YOU ALWAYS CARRY IT WITH YOU?"

"Everything." Kuro turns to Uni, who makes the Intervention appear on her shoulder. "We have, to put it simple, an invisible bottomless bag. Sorry, but before you ask, that's something we can't give you, and I doubt any of you could replicate that." Seeing that he's about to get interrogated, hard, he decides to end the chapter: "Well, at least we finished the mission without any casualties. Who wants to go..."

"LIKE WE'RE LETTING YOU RUN AWAY!"

* * *

**New weapon used:**

**Barrett M99, enhanced by magic (everyone else except Uni doesn't know about that)**

**Doppelganger mini generator (a make-up thing)**

* * *

**I did a small check, and found out that Barrett M99 is actually lighter than Intervention? All COD games so far, I feel the formal being way heavier than the later for some reasons. Or is it because of the different impacts of shots from those guns?**

**Anyway, I have overpowered all weapons, but only slightly. Like with Javelin, I made it go further, but that's it. A well shot and the missile goes down like usual.**

**For now, that's it. The next mission will be in Kloden Wildwood... Oh boy, it's not going to be fun for Alicia when 'he' is found. See you in the next chapters!**


	4. Chapter 4

**Here's chapter 4!**

**I am planning to write side chapter after each of the main battle chapter. If it goes smoothly, that will be the schedule for this story.**

**Seems like you guys don't like the way I write, but, I write for my desires. So, hope you understand it.**

**With that, let's get started!**

* * *

Time: A few days later

Location: Ghirlandaio Fortress. War room

"So Maximilian has gained another absolute victory, huh?" Jaeger casually speaks to Gregor. "That's one thing that might calm you down, you know?"

Of course, the later is not having the same mood. "Calm, you say? We just lost Vasel Bridge to Gallia. What the hell did the infantry do that they let those dogs doing that right under their noses?"

Jaeger just laughs it off. "Relax. It's a surprise to us all, but their way of crossing the river with a tank is fascinating. Gallia sure has some funny tricks under their sleeves, huh?"

"Funny tricks? That's just something a layman would think of. We can't afford to lose to those as lowly as the Militia. This is a taint to Our Grace's authority!" Gregor really wants to slam his hands on the table to express his anger, but decides not to.

Jaeger: "Yeah, yeah. If war's decided by social status, we could have won already. Selvaria, what do you think?" He turns to look at the female general, and sees the record files in her hand. She's reading it without even caring about the conversation between the other generals. "Sel?"

"It's not the time to debate such matters." The girl finally answers. "The problem now is that, Gallia is moving into a counterattack, and they have some helps from unknown sources."

"I agree with the former statement." Maximilian walks into the room, gaining everyone's attention. "Gallia's resistance might be weak now, but we must remove it before it gains stronger." Everyone nods at his statement. Then he focuses on the Valkyria. "But what did you say about unknown sources?"

Selvaria explains: "In the reports of Vasel Bridge battle, a mysterious person has appeared in the middle of them unnoticed and slaughtered them during the fight. That person seemed to be a Darscen, but he wielded a sword during the fight and nothing else. Not only that, outlooks found out that there's a sniper shooting from the other side of the bridge."

Gregor interrupts: "Our soldiers were sneaked up, so their mind must have faltered to give out that wrong statements."

Selvaria: "All of them, even the high officers, said that the directions of the shots were all from there, so there's no mistakes. I'm more concerned about the one with the sword. When did Darscens have a person like him? And there were reports that same person appeared in the time we evaded Bruhl."

"It matters not. He will be eliminated as well." Maximilian interrupts their conversation. "Our first thing to do is to increase our forces at the central front where Gallia resistance is the strongest." All of them then look down at the battlefield map, as the Prince continues: "To do that, we have to secure the supply route from Kloden in the southern part of Gallia. Make sure it's unshakable." He turns to the bald general. "Gregor, you will continue to press northward to restructure our central forces." Receiving a confirmation, he orders next: "Selvaria, we will head to Barious. Jaeger, make haste to Kloden to protect our troops there."

"Roger!" All of the generals salute, and start heading out to carry on their orders. The Prince looks at the map again... then speaks to himself: "A third force in the scene? It could be Atlantic Federation, but the help arrived just when we just infiltrated... I may have to let Selvaria fight sooner than I thought."

* * *

Location: Gallia Militia Base, War room

"Thanks to Squad 7's efforts, Vasel Bridge has returned to us." Varrot summarizes the situation. "Because of that, Imperial's army has to pull back and gather in the central of Gallia."

Faldio questions: "So that's where we head next?"

Varrot denies: "That's Gallia's army's job. Our next target is in the south, Kloden Area. More specifically, Kloden Wildwood."

Welkin comments: "I was there taking soil samples last summer. There are multiple valleys and hills, making it hard to get around."

The current squad leaders nod at his statement, as Faldio asks: "Captain, what's our plan here?"

The captain replies: "There's a supply base there, fueling the Empire's invasion. Taking that place will stop their flows of supplies." She then concludes: "All squads, prepare for woodland combat and await orders. Good luck, and dismissed."

The leaders salute and start exiting the room. However, Varrot holds Welkin back: "A word, mister Gunther." The Lieutenant returns to his seat, as Varrot speaks what's in her mind: "It seems that we're going to need something that helps fighting in those forests. We might need to ask for Kuro and Uni's suggestions of upgrading our equipment now. Can you ask them?"

Welkin doesn't really mind about that, but: "Do you think the two will do so, or they're going to fight in the front line like the last time?"

Varrot: "I know they will, but just to be sure that our men don't die in the middle of the fight."

Welkin nods. "I understand."

Varrot then drops the formality as she asks: "By the way, how are those two doing?"

Welkin: "Well, they work pretty well with nearly everyone. Though... my squad members are still a bit uneasy around Kuro."

"That's easily expected, if the story of Kuro scaring two of your most hot-headed members has turned into all kinds of rumors. You may leave." Welkin stands up, salutes and walks out of the room...

* * *

Time skip to night

Location: Squad 7's homeroom (I don't know what it's called in English-language countries)

"You said you got something for me?" Vyse Inglebard asks when he sees an empty room, except Kuro who's sitting at one of the tables in the room and Uni sitting at the opposite side. When he walks to the man, he sees the mercenary fixing some kind of goggle that looks strikingly similar to his.

"Ah, give me a second." Kuro says, not losing his focus on what he's doing. Then, he puts the screwdriver down and gives it to Vyse. "I'm testing this one a bit. And you are the one being used with this, and what we're heading next is your territory, so here."

Vyse nods, and pockets his own away and puts on the new one. Through its vision, he doesn't see anything changed. "Um... I see no difference."

"Not exactly. Uni, kill the light." And immediately, the room is filled with darkness. Vyse is about to argue when the goggle suddenly moves a bit, then his right eye is filled with green vision... he can see the room now, but everyone's covered in green.

And he is quite shocked. "Hey, I can see the room now! But, everything's in green..."

"Yeah, that's how it's designed." Kuro's voice gets his attention. "I have combined some techs that could help you in combat. The one you're using now is Night Vision, and I guess I don't have to explain it, right?"

"Yeah. I can see in the dark now. Sweet!" Vyse nearly shouts in excitement, but manages to keep his gesture up. "So, is there anything else?" With that, the lights are on again.

Kuro: "Well... let me think of a situation you can... okay, imagine this, you're in a forest, in a midnight stealth mission. Night Vision could give you vision, but it's still up to you to deter where the enemies could be in the grasses, right?" Vyse nods, understanding what Kuro's saying. "Then think that you can deter them... the goggle has the answer."

"Hm..." Vyse starts imagining the situation while closing his eyes. When he gets the picture, he opens his eyes... to see that everything turns blue this time, except Kuro and Uni are covering with all kinds of color. "What the... okay, this one is a bit confusing here."

"Look at the light." Following Kuro's order, he looks up to see the lights being the same with the human. "Okay, look at me and turn your vision back to normal, because it could actually hurt your eyes if you're not used to it." True to his words, he feels a bit nausea now. Once his vision returns to normal, Kuro continues: "What you see is Heat Vision. If there's heat, the vision will turn into red-like color, the rest will be blue. So, if you see a red in the middle of blue, you know there's a living being there. Or a fire."

Vyse comments: "You sure know a lot of technology... but in theory, I could still use Heat Vision at night, right?"

Kuro: "Yes. But, you won't like the side effects, so use wisely. Night Vision won't give that to you."

The Shocktrooper wonders: "Is this how the animals see in the night?"

Kuro chuckles: "Pretty sure they don't. But you can ask Welkin, he might know."

"I might know what?" Just in time for the commander to walk in, along with a few more members of Squad 7.

Kuro: "Ah, it's nothing to worry about. Anyway, how's the meeting?"

Welkin: "Let's wait for the rest to come."

Aika then notices a difference on Vyse's face. "Hey, Vyse. Did you change your goggle?"

Vyse blinks, then remembers, and he takes off the new goggle. "Ah, it's from Kuro. He wants me to test it out for him..."

"Actually I want you to keep it."

Vyse turns back and looks at Kuro with the eyes of 'Are you kidding?' "Are you sure? I mean, it's probably..."

"Nothing to me. I did plan to show you all the tech, but for making it fit with someone, well, I pick you. Its functions will be mass-produced, so don't worry about yours being exclusive. It's just for style point."

Out of excitement, he walks towards Kuro and gives him a bro-hug. "Oh my god! Thank you so much! That's one of the best gifts I could get."

"Don't sweat it. Just be careful with it though. It could give you troubles if you're not careful enough."

After giving Kuro space, he asks back: "Troubles?"

"You can find it for yourself. For now, let's wait a bit before the rest come."

* * *

After Welkin gives out a small brief...

Uni: "Fighting in a forest? Should we bring something that's flammable?"

Welkin shakes his head. "We don't have anything that could deal consider damages with fire. And the fight could damage the forest badly already..."

Largo: "She did bring out a good suggestion. Leader, you have anything that could support that idea?"

Vyse: "Can we build the one I have instantly?"

Kuro: "Not without a proper blueprint. The one I gave you is modified already. I just fixed to make sure it works again."

Oscar: "Us snipers will have covers but not much views. And if there's fire, we're likely not to get out unscratched."

"How about we separate into two parts?" Everyone quiets down to hear Welkin's plan. "Thanks to Uni and Kuro's helps, our sniper rifles are capable of shooting from further distances. And there are hills for you to station in. I want Uni and miss Wulfstan to lead that group. to 'Wavy, I want you to lead a small group to protect the sniper team. The rest will fight in the front line. Is it okay to you all?"

"Sounds good on paper, mister Gunther." Uni changes to her 'command' mode. "But that's just the surface. The front line guys will definitely face heavy forces. Even with Edelweiss and Lancers, there's a high chance about the soldiers hiding in the bushes."

Vyse: "That's where the Heat Vision works, right?"

Uni nods. "Yes, but one is not enough. And we could mistake people with wildlife, and that thing doesn't distinguish friends from foes."

Vyse scratches his head. "Wow, that many problems? I guess I will stick with Night Vision now unless there's no one helping me."

Alicia then suggests: "How about tomorrow we test it? Maybe we could do something with your new gadget?"

Vyse: "I guess so. I do need to get used to it."

Welkin sees that there's no more matters to add on, so he says: "I guess it's it. Squad dismissed."

Everyone nods and starts heading out to their rooms. Leaving Uni and Kuro behind.

Uni: "You gave him for style points, really?"

"Hey, you know me. Anyway, you had a valid point back then."

"Perks of being the team's most observation girl in the group. But... I guess you have something to deal with that problem?"

Kuro pulls out a round black grenade with red light around it and tosses it up a few times. "Considering we're facing a threat... should we give them the communicators?"

"Maybe after this operation. But... Welkin has it, right?"

"We need to make it be smaller. Wearing such big thing on the head hurts over time."

... "I hope we're not pushing too fast."

"Say that to Tesla Brothers. They built much faster than us."

* * *

The next day

Location: The forest behind the Militia Base

"That doesn't work very well." Uni comments as she looks through the scope of her gun. And she's not talking about the goggle Kuro gave Vyse, because it works perfectly and thanks to the man himself having many experiences like them. It's about the bomb Kuro is testing: It has already designed them as allies, so when the bomb detonates, there's no light to show up, so the sniper team can't see the differences.

"So it's a bit of failures?" Oscar asks.

Uni shakes her head. "It doesn't fail so bad. It does tell us that it hasn't showed allies, so it's good to know. If it shows allies, then we're going to have a difficult time determining the battlefield." She then calls Kuro through the earpiece: "The grenade doesn't show the 'enemies', over."

"I know. And I'm thinking about it." Kuro talks back from the front line, as Welkin and Faldio have ordered to stop the training skirmish between Squad 7 and Squad 1.

Welkin walks to him and asks: "Can you use a different bomb?"

"It's not that it doesn't work. I have registered both squads as allies, so changing it temporarily doesn't seem to work. At least allies are not going to show up."

"But, doesn't that mean we're exposed as well?" Faldio asks. "If we can see them, they can see us, right?"

"Not with this one. The blueprint for this is extremely complicated, even I don't comprehend that much. Don't think about it, that's how I do with this one."

Faldio smacks his hand on his head. "Don't tell me you're Welkin with this one?"

"Maybe." Kuro stands up. "I guess we will know the result in the real fight. This bomb is not dangerous at all."

Welkin concludes: "I guess it's it for today. Let's rest for a while before..." Then he hears Kuro grunting. "What's wrong?"

"Let's just say... I have a little rotten luck with paparazzi..."

* * *

Location: Randgriz City. In a cafe

"Surely we're gaining attentions." Kuro comments as he mixes the milk inside of his coffee cup with his spoon.

"It's common to see Darscens. It's uncommon to see one not wearing their traditional outfits." Irene Ellet starts writing something that Kuro can't see with his naked eyes. "Anyway, you did promise to let me have interview on you."

"It's more like 'Can I talk to you?' and I agreed. But that's like a opening flag for you reporters, huh?"

Despite perfectly hearing his sarcasm, the reporter can see that the 'Darscen' is having a calm expression. "You look like you have dealt with it before."

"Happens when you travel for a while. So, how much info you want to know?"

Seeing that it's time, Ellet starts her questions: "Okay, first: Where are you from? You definitely aren't from Gallia, given your accent. And the girl with you as well."

"Sorry, but I'm not giving that out. I can't let our relatives being in danger."

"Oh? Making enemies during the trip?"

"Something like that."

"Okay then... I guess I will go down to the rumors immediately. Saying that you called the eldest one 'a boy', right?"

"Kind of in a heat of moment."

"That kind of insult sounded like you're older than him. And about you using a sword instead of a gun... but that's your... copy or so?"

"Ah, that... something along the way."

Ellet is now having some doubts that she couldn't actually get much from him. 'His answers are too vague... I thought I could get much from him...maybe I will ask the girl...' "So why did you help specifically Squad 7?"

"It was because of Bruhl events. I was helping the leader and the second-in-command back then."

"Ah, so it's better to be in the squad you know the most? Got it... Relationship with the girl? The other Darscen?"

"... Okay, let me make it clear that, both of us are not Darscens. We might look like them, but we're not."

Now Ellet takes a better look, Kuro's hair is definitely all black, unlike dark blue of Darscens. And his gesture doesn't seem to be... and the girl has red eyes... but: "Maybe you're from a different place of Darscens?"

"Our history doesn't have the name, so I doubt it's the case."

"... Okay then. How long have you known the girl?"

"Her name is Uni, and we have known each other for... years. Don't remember how long."

'Another vague one.' "Are you in a..."

"Nope. She has a girlfriend." Kuro puts down his spoon and starts drinking his coffee.

That makes the reporter blink. 'Girlfriend? But, she's a girl... right?' Then she sees Kuro's expression wrinkle, and he puts even more milk into the coffee. "Not a fan of coffee?"

"All bitter food in general. Spicy as well." The stirring restarts.

That causes Ellet to giggle. "Really? How unexpected for someone like you to not like coffee."

"Wish I just called milk from the start." That causes the giggle to continue. Really? Someone like him liking something so childish? "Hey, don't laugh at my favorite stuffs."

"Really?" Well, it has becoming more interesting now. "How about your personal life, huh? Have you got someone for your life?"

"Not answering that." But she does see pink creeping on his face. She now knows that there IS a way to make him talk.

"Your favorite food?"

"Really... depending on mood."

"... I'm not writing that down. So if you're a traveler, how do you feel about Randgriz? Like anything you have seen before?"

"Quite a few. But every place has their own charms."

"Okay... if you're not a Darscen, then why don't you have a last name? The girl as well?"

"The people from the past had last names, but we decide not to use them nowadays. So that we could call each other without mistaking anyone with the others."

"Hm? Why?"

"Family names were actually common in our places. Think of it like this: you see a group of 10 including your friend, you call their last name, and if it happens to be a common one, at least half of the group would turn at you."

Ellet nearly chokes on her drink. A community where last names are common between individuals? "And the name..."

"Less common, but still can be confused in bigger groups."

"That's... hard to swallow." If she calls a name and ten of them turn to her, it would be so embarrassing.

"Actually it's not that bad. It's very rare for calling many in one, but that could happen if you're organizing a show. Next."

"For real?" She wants to facepalm about just how he could turn around the favor like that. "Ehem... where is your squad heading next?"

"I suppose that one won't be on the paper?" Nod. "Kloden Wildwood."

"The South, huh? It's going to be hard."

"We're working on it." Then a phone ring is heard. Everyone stops a bit to look at where it's from, to see Kuro pulling out a small device, as he puts it on his ears. "Uni, what is it... yeah... Ten minutes or so." He then puts it away... and he notices the stares from everyone, especially Ellet. "What?"

"Did... was that a phone?" The reporter gives out the most possible guess to that thing.

"Yeah. Sorry but the Militia needs me for something. It was a nice talk with you." Kuro stands up and leaves enough money to pay for both drinks, then bows and walks off the cafe.

"Hey wait! Can I..." The reporter tries to call Kuro back, but stops herself as a... dangerous-looking motorbike appears on the road, and Kuro just jumps on it and heads to the Militia Base with extreme high speed. That makes everyone drop their mouths in shock, and luckily Ellet has managed to take a quick shot of what just happened. "... Wow... If this doesn't appear on the front page, then I don't know what will."

* * *

**Chapter 4 end!**

**Yeah, I'm not saying his/her story is bad, but the OCs seem to techno-rush a bit fast. Not that I mind.**

**That's it, for now. Hope you guys enjoy it, and see you in the next chapters!**


	5. Chapter 5

Time: 1500

Location: Kloden Wildwood

"Sniper team, report."

"Soldiers stationed as watchers. Need to take them down all at once."

"Do you need a Scout for assistant?"

"We have enough. Going dark for a second."

Uni turns off the comm, and takes aim at a soldier's head, followed by Marina with another. Nearby, Oscar is targeting one stranded nearby.

"On my mark. Three...two...one."

Three silenced shots cut through the air, embedding themselves into the Imperial Scouts' heads. No alarm is made, given that no one else knows about their existence. Though, just to be careful, the snipers move to the locations of the corpses and hide them away. Scanning the area again, Uni calls back: "The hill's clear."

"You see any possible ways to sneak up?"

"Sorry, but through this kind of forest? You have to find them on your own."

"Well, that's our luck running out." Tapping his right foot, Kuro looks at the main road. "Take a look over the road. Call us if you see anything changes."

"So we're stuck here?" Rosie complains after Kuro turns off the comm.

"If you want to fight, go ahead. But we don't have much covers between us and the gate of the base."

Largo: "The sniper team can't give us a better way?"

"What we're looking for is a hidden path. Which is definitely not created before." He then notices Welkin looking at a bundle of grass. "What are you doing Welkin?"

"Come and take a look, guys." The soldiers follow the commander's order, as the later points at the grass. "The grass here is trampled. Not by human, but animals. It could be our answer for this."

Largo is not understanding everything. "So? It could lead us to anywhere."

Welkin: "Better that, or nothing. Alicia, can you lead a small group to try and sneak into the base?"

The second-in-command nods and starts picking the members for herself. But then Vyse covers Alicia's mouth while she's whispering. "Sh. Heat signal, in the grass meters from us."

That causes everyone to instantly prepare their weapons and point to the grass Vyse mentioned. Rosie then whispers back: "Can you make it out what it is?"

"Something lying on the ground. Small, but could be enemy." Vyse ducks behind a tree while continuing observing. Then his grip on his weapon tightens. "It's coming to us."

Activating his own Heat Vision in his glasses, Kuro holds a knife with his left hand under his revolver and focuses on the dot. Yes, he knows what it is, but he's still cautioning about what could happen after.

Then... about seconds later, a little pig with wings coming out of the grass, making nearly everyone face-fault. Kuro sighs, then puts his knife away, but still points his gun towards the grass. He then puts his index finger on his lips, signalling everyone to be quiet, while himself starts walking into the grass. About a moment later, he finds what he actually doesn't want to see: a dead body of the creature of the same type with the pig. He kneels down, and sees the lifeless eyes, before praying for its soul and closes the eyes. The work's done, and he returns to the group.

"What did you find there, Kuro?" Welkin asks while patting the pig, which is in Alicia's arms.

"Death." Simply ending the matter there, he asks back: "What kind of pig is he?"

"Porcavian piglet." Isara answers. "A rare type. Never thought we find one this far."

Rosie: "We can't let it go with us. It could slow us down."

Isara talks back: "We could put him in Edelweiss. He won't cause much troubles in there."

"So be it." Kuro then turns on the comm and calls: "Uni, status?"

"I see a tank inside the base. Thick armor plates, no weak points. Our current snipers won't do much against it. Have to leave it to the Lancers."

"The road ahead of us?"

"Free of soldiers. But there's a watchtower with soldiers. You could be detected if you get out of the wood."

Kuro then looks at the big road, then to the hidden trail. Then he orders: "Uni, tell Oscar to prepare the thermal vision. One group will head into a hidden path with strobes. Tell Oscar to avoid those markers, and some others to look after that group."

"Got it!" The voice of Oscar and the rest of snipers can be heard from the background.

Welkin has picked up the people for the operation, and he turns to Kuro. "We're all set here."

And with that, Kuro gives the 'special group' the strobes. "Wear it on your shoulder all the time, so Oscar could see you as friendlies."

Rosie looks over the object before saying: "How can he see us? Wrong question. How can he deter us from the enemies if this thing's not lightened up?"

"It is. But its light can only be seen by either Vyse's thermal vision, or Oscar's." Seeing the Shocktrooper nod understandably, Kuro then aims his sniper towards the road ahead. "Let's get this fight started."

* * *

Time: 1515

Location: Imperial Supply Base

"Reporting, sir! A Gallia company-sized unit is heading towards our base!"

"Hm? Already?" Jaeger stands up from his seat. "Deploy our units. Let's give them a proper welcome."

Getting inside Lupus, he orders the soldiers to ride the tank towards to the gate and start firing its machine gun to the Gallian soldiers. Most of them have either covered behind rocks or trees, while the tank is shooting towards his soldiers. One of his tanks has a shot on the blue tank, but the shot just knocks off the metal and flies away, in his surprise and amusement. 'Unique design comparing to the rest. Now I can see why it could bypass ours in Bruhl.'

Then he notices one person that doesn't look like the rest, given the whiteness all over him. Then he remembers about the reports. 'So this is the help Gallia got. Let's see what that person can do.' He sees the person poke out of his hiding spot, then throws a grenade towards his soldiers, causing all of them to jump away. However, when it explodes, only red light spreads through the area around it, and covers his soldiers in that light without causing damages. His soldiers go back hiding, while checking if they could put those lights away... only to end up getting their heads blown away by shots coming from the hill. Taken by surprise, the others try to change cover directions, but their efforts come to waste as some bullets manage to penetrate through the wood-material. Also, Jaeger notices that he could see his soldiers as well, despite there's a big rock between his vision and the soldiers. 'They could see our positions even when in cover? What kind of grenade was that?'

To Gallian

"That grenade works..." Welkin speaks to himself. Even inside the tank, he could see the red light all over the opponents' side.

"Not for long. But it could make them cautious to us and not the back lines." Kuro talks to the radio, while peeking out and shooting a few shots. "How much time do we need to delay them?"

"About a few more minutes." Calling a shot towards, Welkin answers.

Kuro then notices the sniper team sliding down and joining the front line. "All of you are back? Any weak points?"

Marina reports: "Oscar stays to help the other team. Not a single weak point on that tank. Not with that armor still up."

Largo: "Don't you have that Lancer of yours? Why don't you use it?"

Kuro: "Needs clearer view and better protection." He then pokes out again to see the battlefield. Then he notices a Ragnite tank laying near the gate. He pulls out his Barrett M99. "Well, let's see how that tank fares to Ragnite." But, from the corner of his eyes, he sees something flying from their left side, across the lake and then gazes over Edelweiss' armor. "What the? Anti-tank shots?"

"Isara, reverse back a bit so that we're not in clear view." Then he calls the other team: "Alicia, there's an anti-tank gunnery from your side. Can you find it?"

Alicia's group

"We heard the shot and we found the camp." Slowly walking further, the group looks at a hidden camp of the Imperial, with said gunnery firing across the lake. Taking position behind the tents, Vyse uses his new goggle and sees three soldiers, one controlling the gunnery and two guarding him. However, in the last moment, Oscar calls and warns that there's one inside the tent Rosie is leaning against. They start aiming their weapons, with Rosie directly into the tent for the spray, Jane to destroy the gunnery, Vyse and Susie aiming at the guards...

To Jaeger

"Well, the anti-tank gunnery is doing their work." He praises the soldiers, as he sees the shots heading to the tank of Gallia. "Let's see how they deal with them."

An explosion occurs, and he checks to see smoke coming from the supposed camp. Judging by the tank's reaction to the first shot, he could say the Gallian don't know about it, but then how... 'Come to think of it, the ones on the hill didn't report back... the Gallian must have separated their soldiers into small squads. Clever, but not enough.' But then, one of the warehouses nearby the tank suddenly blows up, causing nearby soldiers to die instantly. That nearly catches him off guard, but he still manages to order: "Soldier, report!"

"One of the Ragnite tanks exploded, sir! Just after that deafening sniper rifle sound!"

'Snipers?' He diverts his focus back to the tank of the Gallian, to see that white man standing directly on the hatch, with no covers, aiming his gun towards his soldiers... or to him, because the next shot gazes just over the hatch, but that causes his ears to ring up because of the vibration of the shot. 'Okay, that's unexpected.' Now knowing what the cause is, he orders: "Start gathering as much as possible and retreat. I will hold them off for a while."

To the front line

Through the scope of his weapon, Kuro sees Lupin starting to back off and going inside the base. 'Retreating part? Hm... How to convince them...' He then calls through his comm: "Be careful, Alicia. The Imperial Tank is going back. Don't go into its line of sight." Hearing a confirmation from the Scout, he knocks on the hatch to get Welkin's attention. "I'm running up. Aim the main cannon towards me and shoot." Hearing shouts of surprise from inside and around the tank, he assures: "I know what I'm doing. Just leave the work to me." Changing his guns into his katana, he jumps off the tank and starts leaping towards the enemies.

Welkin knows that Kuro already has something to work with if he have made that kind of plan. But, even if it's just a small part of him, he doesn't want to do so. However, he's still in the mission, so: "Isara, start aiming at Kuro. Fire on my mark."

Back to Jaeger

"So he decides to fight head on." Looking through the binocular, the general sees the white-coat man running towards his soldiers with his left hand grabbing a sword. Seeing the threat coming, Imperial soldiers start shooting him, but all are deflected by his swing speed that normal eyes can't keep up. When he's near one of the soldiers, the man roars in anger and tries to use the stock of his gun to bash the other in the head, but the opponent quickly swings the sheath (with the sword in it) and swats the gun aside, before spinning and drawing the sword out, and cuts the soldier in half at his waist. After finishing him, the merc runs to another soldiers and cuts them down like cheese. Then, from the corner of his eyes, Jaeger sees the cannon of Gallia's tank starts moving and aiming at... the merc himself. 'What are they thinking? Trying to kill their own allies?' With no more seconds to waste, the air is filled with the sound of the shell coming out of the cannon and heading straight towards to the man... and to soldiers of both sides' surprise, in the last tick of second, the man is suddenly covered in a light blue flame before disappearing, leaving the Imperial soldiers to be killed because of the blast. Then, one of the soldiers is cut in half vertically by the man reappearing right in front of him letting him no chance to even scream in fear.

'A male Valkyria? Impossible.' Having heard stories from Maximilian and Selvaria, Jaeger knows that the Valkyria is an all-female race. Seeing a male using these power is a warning sight if Maximilian wants to get what he needs. Not going to let more of his soldiers die, he starts ordering them to retreat, before hearing another explosion sound from behind. He opens the hatch and looks out to see that one squad of the Gallia Militia is already behind them and kill the unexpected soldiers. He immediately turns Lupus cannon and aims at them, then opens fire, but the blue soldiers have already seen that coming and dodged out of the shot. "This is not good. Never thought Gallia could give me this much troubles. All soldiers, abandon the base! Retreat now!"

* * *

Time: 1600

"Well done soldiers, the mission is a success."

"Thank you, Captain Varrot. But the glory should go to him."

"Hey, Welkin. Don't forget our newest member here. He's the one giving us the alternative route for the mission to succeed."

"Kuro's right. Hans' help has gotten us this victory!"

"Moink!"

"Um, who named the bacon Hans?"

"That aside. Mister Kuro, might explain why you ordered Welkin to shoot straight at you, and how you dodged the shots?"

"Already planned it. Me attacking is a diversion so Edelweiss could freely shoot. With me being in front and causing troubles, they have to make a fifty-fifty guess on where the tank will shoot next. About I dodged, it's just a quick leap here and there, nothing biggie."

"But it's really a risky plan. You could have died."

"*Laugh* Not today, Isara. Alright, let's go back and have a little rest before the next mission."

* * *

**Sounds like this story will be my own enjoyment huh? Well, hope you guys still like it somewhat. For now, bye bye!**


	6. Chapter 6

Time: 0900

Location: Gallia Militia Base

"A tour around town?"

"Yeah. So you could be more familiar with the place. Don't you want to go?"

"Of course. But I don't want to bother you..."

"Nonsense! Besides, you don't have our kind of currency here, right?"

"Actually, I do. *Shows the bag full of Ducat* Always exchange before heading to the next country."

"... How rich are both of you?"

"Didn't our weapons tell much?"

"...Good point."

* * *

Time: 0930

Location: Rangridz

"The street sure looks more crowded than usual."

"Can't be helped, since it's the central city of Gallia."

"And that..." Uni points to the castle in the far end. "Is where the Royalties stay?"

"It's mostly for the princess to live, and the important meetings to arrange. Though, she's young, and the current Regent, Maurits von Borg, mostly gives out the orders."

"Hm... no wonder that Empire wants to take your country. Your leader is quite weak."

"Hey now." Alicia scolds a bit. "I know we don't have a good politics, but we can handle ourselves quite well."

"That's not what I meant, and sorry if I offend you." Uni apologizes. "However, what I can see here, is that the Regent is taking advantages of the princess in controlling the country. One day he will try to get her off the throne for sure."

"... You do have a point." Isara agrees. "But, that's not our place to question it. We have to wait and see if it's really the truth."

"I suppose... hey, newspapers." Walking into Castlefront Street, Uni takes a look at what's being sold here. "Most of them about wars, I see..."

"Just the person I need!" Irene walks out of her stand, already having the notebook in her hand. "Hey miss, can I have a minute with you?"

"... You are the one interviewing Kuro a few days before, right?"

"Yep! My question still stands, though."

"... Three minutes."

"Great!" The reporter then gestures the girl towards a table with chairs, and the girls start surrounding the duo in curiosity. Then the interview starts with Irene giving Uni a newspaper. "Do you know this item of your friend?"

Uni holds the paper up, and immediately facepalms when she sees the demon motorbike appears on the front page. "...Yes, I do. However, just think of it as a motorbike, please. I don't like going into details."

"Oh come on! At least tell me where he got it from!" Ellet is a bit impatient as she whines. "He gave me vague answers before, I don't want to hear it from you as well!"

Uni rubs her eyes with her free hand. "... All I can really say is that, he got it from another mercenary. And it could surpass speed of sound if he wants to do it willingly."

Aika's eyes widen in surprise, then turn to normal. "Not really surprised if he could have something like that. He even ordered Welkin to shoot at him..."

"What? He asked his allies to shoot him?" Ellen quickly writes it down in disbelief.

"I didn't even believe it at first when the rest told us about it." Alicia deadpans when she remembered about the fight. "But, judging by how serious the others were, I guess I have to accept it."

"...Wow, never heard someone would dare to order such things." Ellet speaks to herself. Then, she continues: "So, how long have you known him for?"

"He was friends with our sisters first, and from that we know him. A shy guy with a childish personality..."

"That... doesn't match with current him... except the part when he couldn't drink coffee..."

"Just him trying to be tough. Actually, if you push him around enough, he would let inner-him out unwillingly."

Now that makes the girls (except Alicia and Isara) to start making plans to try to prank him. Ellet decides to return back to the interview: "So basically he's your childhood friend? Then... may I ask if you really swing that way?"

"That way... yeah, so?"

"Just a bit curious. It's rare to hear about romantic between girls...Also, you said 'our sisters', so that meant..."

"He knows both me and my girlfriend, and some of my other friends as well..."

"You sure have a lot of 'sisters' as your friends." Edy leans on the back of her chair while wondering.

"It's a bit complicated..."

"By the way, do you know where Kuro is?" Ellet asks.

"... Beats me. But if I'm right..."

* * *

Same time

Location: Graveyard

"Quite a surprise. A new face around the city." The aged gentleman walks into the place, with his cane supporting him. "And quite young, also."

"Greetings to you as well." Not removing his eyes from watching the graves, Kuro speaks. "A lot of soldiers have fallen during the war. As a person who witnessed many wars, I respect every single one of them, no matter where they are from."

The man stands next to Kuro and asks: "Even if those soldiers were trying to kill you?"

"Depends. If they followed their orders, then I can sympathize. Doing on their own sick desires, different story."

Kuro doesn't notice, but the man takes a small moment to observe him, before saying: "You seem to have witnessed the dark corners of the wars... and yet, you don't seem to be traumatized by it."

"I have passed the point." The 'younger man' then kneels down on one of the graves and touches the stone. "Though the bodies have returned to dust, their souls are lingered to the realm of living, unsatisfied by their incomplete desires..."

Now that makes even the veteran of war feel uneasy. The way the 'young man' just said feels so... creepy. Not even the cruel of war sounds the same as those words. "Death is quick and unpredictable. We leave much regrets to the world after we die..."

"Yes, it is. But, who is responsible for it? Themselves, or the others? And if people find out their dreams, would those dreams be sated by the living?" Standing up, Kuro turns to the exit and walks off. "It's been an interesting trade of words, mister Kankkunen. Maybe we can sit down and talk at a better place than the place of the souls. See you again soon." And when he reaches the exit, Welkin is walking towards the place. "Have a good day, Welkin."

"Thanks Kuro." Welkin, having no suspicions, greets back before Kuro walks away. He then sees the old man standing there. "Hello, sir. You have met one of my friends?"

"...If he is your friend, then yes indeed. And he's... quite interesting."

"Yes, he is." Welkin scratches his head while smiling nervously. "We can't even sure how he could even do what he did."

"..." The old man doesn't say anything yet, before turning to the grave Kuro touched. "That one..."

* * *

Time: 2100

Location: Eleanor's office

"Come in." Hearing the knock on her door, the Captain calls the person without looking up as she's focusing on her work. "My apology, I'm having some important work, so can you sit on the chair and wait for me a bit?" From the corner of her eyes, she sees the boots of the person walking towards a chair as the person sits on it. And after that, the person just waits patiently on that chair, not even saying one word. 'Strange... but at least he doesn't distract me...'

After a few minutes, she has done her work, and she puts it aside and sits straight up. "Thanks for your waiting. Now, what do you want..."

"Still the same Eleanor I remember." All words get stuck in her throat, as she finally recognizes who has been waiting for her. Looking at the person's face, she sees the face of a long lost friend she thought she could never meet again smiling at her.

On instinct, she grabs the pistol and points it at the person, thinking that it's an imposter. "... Who are you?"

The person stands up, and the gun follows his movements. "Don't you remember? It's me, Frederic. Friend of yours and Largo's."

"... That person is dead." Yes, the Militia has recovered the broken corpse of the person, and it's been buried in the graveyard.

"Yes, I am. But, a person has lent me his body, so I could talk to you one last time."

Gripping on her pistol harder, Eleanor asks: "Then, do you have any proves that you're Frederic?"

The person before her reaches his hand into one of the pockets, and then places something on the table, before backing away slowly. Looking down, the Captain gasps in shock. "This..."

"I kept it until the end. Even though it's a copy, the person has traced back a bit to find it out so that I could prove myself to you."

Lowering down her pistol, her eyes start tearing up, then she opens one of her drawers and pulls out the exact object, albeit being rusty. "It... I..."

Frederic slowly walks to her, and places his hand on her cheek, and gently moves her face to look at him. "I know you're still angry and wanting to take revenge for me, but, please let it go."

From happiness to anger, she wipes her tears and puts the item back into the drawer. "My objective has been there after your death. I'm not going to back off."

The dead man sighs, as he takes his own back. "I know. However, please listen to me. There's a way for you to take revenge on Giorgios without killing him."

Taken surprised, Varrot looks back and orders: "Continue."

"His work of torturing has provoked ire of Maximilian, to the point there's an order of execution on him. The moment you captured him, you could try to push him back into Imperial's land, and he will be killed accordingly."

"..." Varrot's not really liking that plan. She wants to be the one who will punish the bastard for what he has done...

She then nearly jumps in surprise, as Frederic hugs her from behind. "There's one last thing I want to say. Please move on, don't live with your past but with your present. Do it for yourself, and for me, so I could rest easily."

One of the very rare times, blush slowly raises up on the Captain's face. "I... I will try..."

Frederic chuckles. "I know you can." Though, the moment he releases the woman, his right hand suddenly slaps his own face hard. "Ouch!"

"What... what was that for?" Trying to hide her embarrassment, Eleanor asks back in confusion.

"Yeah... he did warn me not to interact with you too much... it's still his body..." He then starts walking towards the exit. "I think it's my time to go now. Live well, my love."

"... Rest in peace, Frederic." The moment the door's closed, she says her farewell, then she sits down on her chair, and cries, not in sadness but in happiness that she could at least meet him for the last time. "... Thank you... whoever you are..."

* * *

The next day

"FREDERIC?" Largo immediately chokes on his food after hearing the story from the Captain. "Are you sure it's not your dream?"

"It's not. Too early for me to sleep." Eleanor explains. "I have never heard about the problem between that bastard and the country, so the conversation was real."

"... Damn, now that's a bit creepy." Drinking water for the food to go down, Largo continues: "So all we need to do is to send him back to the guy, and he will do the rest?"

"Kind of."

"... Do you know who could LEND a body to a dead person?"

The two look directly at each other's eyes, having one exact answer for that question. Then Largo dismisses: "That's too ridiculous. Could be someone else..."

"But it makes sense. I will try to ask him after this mission."

"Yeah, in Barious Desert. Not going to be fun."

"No battle is fun, Largo... What kind of weapon is he going to show-off this time?"


	7. Chapter 7

**The AN from the beginning has returned! To the reviews:**

**To isolono: To be fair, Uni was also trying to hide their identities, so being asked for money won't be much of a problem. About the rest, check the story for the answers you want.**

**To GJO1088: Thanks for your information. That helps a lot for my stream of ideas to complete itself. I have some answers PMed to you, the rest will be answered through the main story.**

**Without further ado, here's chapter 7!**

* * *

"Still hanging in here, Kuro?" Uni asks in curiosity, as she walks into the common room of squad 7 to see Kuro checking his phone. She looks over his shoulder to see what he's reading. "Reviews again?"

"Yeah. Hey, do you remember the time we tried to sneak back into Bruhl?"

"In the early of May? We tried to destroy as much as tanks as possible there. Squad 7 meanwhile was doing a joint operation with another squad. Why do you ask?"

"Yeah... I forgot about Nameless squad."

Uni giggles. "You are careless sometimes. Anyway, what's more?"

Kuro then remembers, and scolds Uni: "Why did you tell the girls my weakness?"

Uni: "Oh, that? Sooner or later there's going fan-service for the story, right? Besides, it's always nice to see you in the bitter side."

"...I hate you for that. Anyway...speaking about Barious, are those goggles ready to use?"

"The moment you told them about the necessary items, they already prepared."

"Military-speed, huh? Hmm... did we forget something..."

"How about that Valkyria of Empire? You said we're going to face her in this fight."

"Well... considering I have scared everyone in Kloden, I'm sure they will send the issue towards the Prince, and from that, the girl might be directly on the battlefield."

"That's just an excuse to show you who you really are, huh?"

"Maybe, maybe not. *Chuckles* Faldio, you can stop hiding now. Come in."

Uni is taken surprised when Kuro said that name, and then she hears the door opening, as she turns back to see the leader of Squad 1 walking in. "H...How much did you hear from us?"

"From the Valkyria part." Faldio blankly answers, as he closes the door carefully. He then leans on the door, thinking that he's blocking the way out, and asks Uni: "What did you say about Kuro showing who he really is?"

"Um... that..."

"You are the intelligent one, so you must have some ideas in your head, right?" Kuro answers for Uni, still looking into his phone.

"A few. First, you could be a maniac Empire soldier who got expelled, and now you're using us to kill those who exiled you. Second, you're nobody and you're bluffing us, but with your weapons being real, I abandoned that thought. Or third... you're a rare Valkyria."

"That... that makes..."

"Quite a lot of senses." Kuro interrupts Uni again.

"Don't interrupt me! And you can't just let him tell about us like that!"

"Uni..." Kuro sighs, as he turns off his phone but not looking up yet. "Do you remember what those Brimir followers called me? A true demon. But everyone else sees me as their Savior. That's just opinions from people's views, so don't work up too much on it."

Faldio joins in: "Or fourth... you're not even human."

Now that makes the room completely filled with silence. Then, Kuro chuckles. "Oh? Please tell us your theory. Why do you think so?"

"All of your feats. No normal human could do so. Even in the records, aside from their super strength, no Valkyrias had even moved with that speed you two possessed..."

"And that's still slow, Faldio." Kuro interrupts. "And there are people who's faster than me, and they're human, but okay, continue."

Faldio raises his eyebrows, then continues: "There's absolutely no records of you two. And while you look like Darcsens, Uni looks like she's a mix between them and Valkyria, which is absolutely absurd as the records said that Valkyria and Darcsens were eternal enemies."

"... Were, Faldio, were. Time changes everything, nothing can survive against it, not even the purest and utter hatred. But yes..." Kuro raises his head up and shows Faldio his eyes, and Faldio immediately sees the changes: Kuro's right eye turns red and a half-circle replaces the pupil, while his left eye has some sort of symbols circling in it. Turning to Uni, he sees her eyes have turned green with the same symbols in Kuro's right eye. "We are not human...not anymore to be exact."

Instinctively, Faldio puts his hand on defensive stance to wait for any attacks due to the dangerous aura he's feeling... then it vanishes, as both Uni and Kuro's eyes are turned back to normal, as the later says: "I think it's late now, you should return to your place and have a nice rest."

The leader of squad 1 asks with a dumbfound face: "Wait, you aren't scared that I'm going to tell everyone?"

"To be honest, it would just annoy us, that's all. After the war with Empire is done, we part way, so there's no reasons to hold secrets for too long."

"... Then goodnight." Faldio opens the door behind him and walks with fast pace back to his room, not wanting to deal with this.

... Uni then turns to Kuro: "Really?"

"Like I said. Anyway, skip to the fight."

* * *

Time: ?

Location: War room of the Empire

"The base has fallen, I see." Gregor speaks to Jaeger with a bored tone. "I told you to put more forces into protecting the place."

"Yeah yeah, spare me your lectures." Sitting down on his chair, Jaeger leans on it tiredly. "So you heard the bad news, but have you heard the worse and the worst one?"

"Those small details are not my concerns." Reading another reports, Gregor says with no interest of the matter.

"Gallia somehow gained a type of weapons that show their enemies' location, which is our position, so all of our moves are basically predicted."

"Still small details. The fact we could hide behind a rock would make the infantry weapons be useless."

"The mercenaries were there."

"...Then I must have missed something in the reports, or someone forgot to write down."

"Because they didn't want to talk about the last thing they want to know: One of them is a Valkyria."

"..."

"I have told a soldier to send an immediately message to him, so Maximilian must have known by now."

"Are you even sure if that person's one? Selvaria said that all Valkyrias are all females."

"And that's why I sent the message. He might not be, but his strength could rival Selvaria's for sure."

"Hm... they're in Barious now... for what reason again?"

"Definitely about Valkyrur for sure if His Grace brought Selvaria with him."

* * *

Time: 0900, present

Location: One of Empire's camps

"Dude, I heard sandstorm happens regularly here." One Scout says to the Sniper next to him.

"Yeah, I really hate it. The sand always gets into my boots and I can't take it out during patrols." The sniper groans while keeping his watch.

"Not to mention that it just burns us from the inside of our armor! Seriously, I want to put the mask off, but sand would just blind me..."

"We could just bring a goggle or so..."

"Stop jabbing around soldiers!" The Lancer leader shouts to them. "We're here to protect the camp, not to complain about the heat!"

"Yes sir!"

Though, the moment the leader walks away, the Scout says: "Seriously, if this goes on, I would have died because of the heat first before the Gallians come here."

An hour later

"Sh!t, I can't see anything." The Sniper complains, as the sandstorm is over their heads.

"Yeah, me neither. Hey, anyone see anything?" Scout shouts through the radio.

"Nothing. The sand's too much." One Shocktrooper answers back. "Keep your guard up. Who knows what could happen? Hey, any Engineers around?"

"Still guarding the tanks. Over." One of them starts speaking, as he knocks on the tank next to him. "Does the tank still work in right conditions?"

"At the moment, yes. But we already feel the sand in our mouths already." The rider talks from the inside, his voice muffled by both being inside the tank and the sandstorm.

"Sir, do you see anything from your side?" The Scout tries to call the Lancer... and receives nothing. "Captain, do you hear me? Captain?"

"My apology. The damn sand caught into the helmet." Luckily, the Captain calls back. "I'm heading to your position now. Keep your eyes open."

"Roger!" Turning off the radio, Scout says in relief: "Thought he just got killed."

A moment later, the Lancer leader walks on the post, as the Sniper briefly turns back and asks: "You okay sir?"

"Yes. Though, the helmet's really quite annoying." Starting to removing the helmet off, the Lancer says: "You should do the same. It's too hot in that thing."

"Now you're saying si..." The Scout just starts to cheer, but immediately stops when he looks at the Lancer's face. And he immediately raises his gun towards the person: "WHO ARE Y..."

*BANG! BANG!*

"Gun sounds? What's going on up there?" Another Scout from below hears the noise, as he shouts up, but there's no answers. "SH!T! EVERYONE, WEAPONS TIGHT! Enemies in our base! You, come with me!"

"YES SIR!" The nearly Shocktrooper readies his gun, as both of them run up to the post to see the Sniper and the Scout having a hole on their heads, with a Lancer outfit laying right before them. "This is not good. Everyone, someone sneaked in and disguised as our men! Stay on guard!" He then asks the Scout: "What can we do now, sir?"

"Check every corner. Do NOT let anyone slip by. Not even our own soldiers."

"Roger that!" The Shocktrooper salutes and walks down the stairs, and starts aiming at anywhere suspicious to him while walking very slowly to not be caught off guard. "Every post, be advice, watch closely at any suspicious movements. We don't know how many enemies..." As he's passing a ruin of a wall, a Lancer suddenly gets smashed right through the wall, causing sand to fly directly into the Shocktrooper's helmet, blinding him for a few seconds. Once he manages to get rid of the sand, he looks down to see the Lancer having a stab wound through his abdomen. "Stab wounds? NO WAY! Everyone, that damn mercenary is here!" He radios to everyone, however, all he receives is static, and a few moments later he hears an explosion sound, indicating that one tank just explodes. "Damn it! The Gallians exploited this sandstorm to sneak in!"

"Soldier!" Hearing that making him go on edge, as he turns around and nearly pulls the trigger before he hears his superior's voice. "We need to be careful now. It's only us in this mess."

"...Open your helmet, now!" The Shocktrooper orders. He's not going to risk his life not knowing what he's dealing with.

"Okay." The Scout throws his helmet away so the Shocktrooper could see the familiar face. "You too."

"...Okay." The soldier complies. Trying to keep his eyes open, he sees the Scout, with the Rifle on his shoulder, trying to cover his face with his arms. "No one survived, sir?"

"Unfortunately. Those sneaky bastards killed everyone...The only one left is you."

"Damn. What can we do now?"

"Try to head back to the communication room." The soldier complies, as the two slowly walk towards the location.

The Shocktrooper opens the room... and sees a Darcsen crossing her arms as she stares at him passively. He immediately raises his gun up, only to feel a sharp pain in his back, as some kind of knife stabs right into his spine. Dropping his gun down, he looks back to see who just did it, and to his horror, that's his own Scout... however, the sandstorm starts to go down, and the Scout's outfit changes into the one of the mercenary, as the face starts changing as well. Now he knows why, as he tries to call through his radio again, but the mercenary already yanks it out and pulls out the hidden knife, letting him fall on the floor and slowly dying due to the blood loss and the heat of the sun.

* * *

When the sandstorm completely depletes, the camp is filled with dead corpses of Imperial troops under Gallian's troops, along with a blown up tank. That one causes the second base go on full alert, as soldiers start positioning to defend against a second attack.

"That C4 really works well!" Jann commends the equipment. "But it's really risky to get close to the tank. Thanks to the sandstorm we could go close without being detected."

"And that device of yours, man. Wandering around without them even noticing..." Largo points out how Kuro wandered between the enemies, and even after the kick against the Lancer.

"It's nothing, really. Though the second base has noticed of our actions here. Better head fast now. And goggles off now, everyone, the sandstorm won't come back until an hour at least."

"Okay. Largo, you lead some Lancers and start taking down the tanks. Uni, you're in charge of the sniper team, shoot down defenseless soldiers. Scouts and Shocktroopers, protect the Lancers so they can do their tasks." The Commander gives out the orders.

"ROGER!"

Kuro wipes the blood out of his blades, and is about to head out, before Welkin stops him. "Kuro, you have done enough. You take a rest."

The man just chuckles. "Well, if you think it's the best. I'm going to troll the Imperials now."

"Troll? What do you mean?"

"Well, we have the radio here."

* * *

"We need immediate support! Gallia has taken the front camp during the storm!"

"This is HQ. I suggest you retreat now! We won't be able to give you more troops in time!"

"We're abandoning this base?"

"Or you're gonna be killed all! Just do it!"

"Rog... what the hell is that Bob?"

"Sir! Someone is using our frequency and just constantly singing with his terrible voice!"

"Goddamnit! Are you kidding me?"

* * *

"What... a terrible singing." Alicia deadpans as she aims at a Scout's head and shoots. "Uni, was that really Kuro's voice?"

"A hundred percent doubt of it. He's definitely using that voice changer of him."

"Yeah, I think it's the case." Rosie says, while spraying over the sandbags. "If that's really his voice, then I will tape his mouth the moment he starts singing in the future."

"I think it does a great job in making the fight less tense, though." Welkin tries to the bright side here.

"And surely annoying the hell out of those troops of Imperial." Edy just chuckles when she sees the confusion in the midst of the soldiers.

"Do you think how long they would run?" Isara asks in wonder.

"In this pace, Is, I think it's an immediacy." Welkin just smiles, sympathizing for those soldiers who's been tortured by the absolute worst of singing they have ever heard.

* * *

After about an hour, the fight stops as the Imperial army retreats. Gallia troops advance forward and head further into Barious...

With Kuro recently being taped by Rosie, after finding out that he was actually singing with his real voice...

"It's the voice changer, Rosie."

"No. Until necessary, I'm not letting him talk."

Kinda ruined Rosie's career in a way.

Kuro doesn't really care, as he shrugs with his eyes showing that he's smiling for sure.

"This is going to be annoying sometimes." Alicia rubs her eyes in annoyance.

"How about focusing on Rosie's singing and completely ignore Kuro's?"

"Maybe that's the best."

* * *

Days later

Largo points up to the new structure on the hill. "Hey, what's that structure over there?"

Rosie says in wonder: "Its shape looks very weird, and it stands out like a sore thumb in this place."

Faldio sees the group and calls for them: "So there you are."

Welkin greets back: "Hey there, Faldio. I didn't know you're out here too."

Faldio: "Yeah, I was ordered to observe the ruins' interior. You know, being an archeology major." He then looks up to the structure. "It was supposedly erected millennia ago by the Valkyrur themselves."

Isara: "So they actually existed?"

Faldio then glances towards Uni and Kuro, the later is focusing on the building. "Yeah. Those two know."

Welkin asks Kuro in surprise: "You two already knew that?"

Uni answers instead: "To be fair, in our eyes, Valkyrur is just a name of a human race, like Darcsens. Their power, though, is a question worth finding out."

"You two really have different mind sets than ours. Anyway, I'm planning to search inside now. You want to come and find out why the Empire is out here?"

"Yeah. Alicia, Uni, you two come with us to look around inside. The rest stay out here and look for strange movements."

"Roger!"

With the group of four heading in, Isara turns one round to look, and then notices Kuro doesn't move after the exchange of words. Isara waves her hand above his face, and receives no responses. "Kuro? Are you there?"

"Just leave him be, Isara. We have more important things to do, my child." Jann pulls the girl back, stops her from 'disturbing' the mercenary.

Though, after half an hour or so, Kuro doesn't even change his stance, as he keeps crossing his arms while staring into the structure. Even Marina gets curious of that behavior. "Even a sniper would shift a bit to ease their numb. What is Kuro thinking?"

"I'm not sure... Let me try to pull him back here." Isara walks to the mercenary and tries to pull his sleeves. "Kuro, let's get..."

"*Sigh* I tried to pull him before." Largo says to Marina. "Like fifteen minutes ago. He didn't even..."

"AAAAHHH!" Startled by Isara's scream, all soldiers nearby stand up and look at the duo, and sees the girl falling on the ground, trying to crawl away from the mercenary with a terrified expression on her face.

Marina grabs her gun and starts running towards Isara and pulling her away gently, with the gun aiming at Kuro. A distance away, the woman asks the frightened girl: "What's wrong?"

"He... he was..." Isara isn't able to form any words, as she cowers into Marina's arms.

"Okay pal." Largo starts grabbing Kuro's shoulder and pushes it so he would face him to the eyes. "It's one thing you ignored her, but to scare..." He immediately stops when he sees the lifeless eyes of the mercenary. "What the hell happen to..."

"EVERYONE!" The group of four has returned back, as Welkin announced: "We just encountered Maximilian and one of his generals. We have to... What happened here?" He immediately rushes to a scared Isara. "Isara, you okay?"

Uni immediately knows the reason, as she asks Isara: "You touched Kuro, didn't you?" Isara, who can't really answer verbally, nods. Uni sighs and grabs her gun and uses the stock to hit Kuro right in the head. "Wake up, Kuro. We have work to do."

Immediately Kuro's eyes turn back to normal. And then he sighs and apologizes: "Sorry Isara for what you have seen."

Faldio changes the subject: "I would like to know more about this, but we're having a greater issue. Maximilian is escaping, and we're not letting him do so, okay?"

Though the soldiers are worried about the current situation, the other matter is more important. The soldiers start checking on their weapons and positioning to ambush the Imperial Prince...

After a few minutes, the behemoth of a tank of Maximilian shows up. Alicia says in surprise: "Woah! Look at the size of that tank!"

"And that armor is too thick as well." Largo grimaces. "Uni, do you think those C4 of yours could make a dense on it?"

"...Doubt it. Unless we could find a way to destroy it inside out, then..."

"Then I leave it to you, Uni." Kuro suddenly interrupts. "Because I have something to do." Suddenly the motorbike appears, and Kuro sits on it and rides away, not caring about people shouting at him.

"What the hell?" Rosie immediately exclaims in shock. "He's leaving us to deal with this monster?"

"I think that's the better option, because he's dealing with a second monster here." Faldio sees where Kuro is heading and understands why. "Welkin, what should we do now?"

"For now, avoid directly facing it. We have to see what it could do."

* * *

"Eliminate who opposes against His Grace!" Selvaria shouts out, as the Imperial Army marches forward and fights against Gallia soldiers. She also starts charging her spear and fires blue lasers towards the opponents, eliminating as many foes as possible.

She then notices something running towards her force from the right side, and that thing just runs on the infantry, killing the soldiers in the process. Due to how fast it goes, the tanks can't line up a good shot against it. Then, the thing directly runs towards her, and she activates her lance and shield, and is about to slash it vertically... when the thing suddenly flies up and splits in two, and a person uses one half of it to slam the wheel on her face, forcing her to raise the shield to block it. Due to the ground being not very solid, cracks start appearing under her feet. After a while, she mutters enough strength to push the weapon away, as the person flies back and lands on the ground, the weapon disappearing out of thin air.

After the dirt stops kicking up, she sees who just attacked her, to see the outfit matched what the reports have said about the helper of Gallia. She points her lance towards the person and shouts: "You dare attacking me head-on? Have you not valued your own life?"

"My life, huh?" The person stands straight up, and the Valkyria could see the person being nearly identical to a Darcsen, without any accessories related to the race. "Lost a long time ago. One reason why I could be reckless as much as I want." In his left hand, a thin sword in a scabbard appears, as he pulls the blade out and points it at her. "I have seen your ancestors' actions towards the Darcsens, and I have to say that I'm very pissed off at it."

Selvaria narrows her eyes. She didn't know about her power heritage, but she knows it's through some dark history. Though, this person could be tricking her. "What they have done is not my concern. Right now, my job is to protect His Grace, and you're not going to stop it."

The man laughs once, before saying: "Your life and his have more values to this world's destiny, so I won't kill you now. Doesn't mean you're getting out of here, unharmed." The scabbard disappears, as he grabs the sword with both hands. "Let's get this down to business."

Due to the distance, she activates the lance and shoots one laser towards the man, but the man just dodges to the left and grabs the projectile with his left hand much to her surprise, and spins one round and throws it back to her, collapses with her shield as she raises it up for defense and explodes. Kuro then leaps forward with his sword ready for a thrust, the hit collides with the shield and sends Selvaria a few meters away. He then jumps up high and slams down, hitting the lance this time. Taking the chance, Selvaria pushes the sword back and swings the lance horizontally, forcing Kuro to deflect it out. She then continues her attacks with light swings, which either Kuro just dodges or deflects it.

Then, when the Valkyria swings her lance upward, Kuro just swings his sword down and completely outclasses the power as the lance gets slammed into the ground, as he moves his left arm over his shoulder, a second identical sword appears in the hand as he slashes it into Selvaria's shield, sending her back even further. Using both his swords, he goes on full offensive as he continuously slashes her from all sides, forcing her to go on full defense for at least three minutes. During that time, Selvaria tries to counter by either bashing her shield back or thrusting her lance, he would just put more forces to counter her attacks.

Eventually, she finds an opening and she jumps out of the frenzy attacks. In the air for a few seconds, she points her lance down and shoots multiple lasers, and after landing she starts running zigzag while firing the lasers. However, with his hyper speed, Kuro dodges those with no problems, and in no time he reaches the girl and gives her a nasty slash to the back horizontally. She yells in pain and drops to the ground, but she gets back up nearly instantly, her power quickly heals the wound but it still leaves a long scar on her back.

"Healing factor. One thing that could turn the tide of all fights. Doesn't work against someone like me though." Sheathing both his swords and making them disappear, he slowly walks towards the weakened Valkyria. "You know, for a pure and innocent Valkyria, you have followed such ruthless person."

That gains a tick of anger in her mind. "Don't you dare talk about His Grace with such tone!"

"I say what I want. Your Grace is nothing to me." He stops a meter away from the woman, so that she won't get a clean shot on him. "But you. Your power is great, your purpose is right, but is it reality or just a sick dream? He saved you for what reasons? For yourself, or your power? On that day, if he saw you but not your power, would he still pick you up, or would he leave you there in that facility, days by days being experimented?"

"YOU KNOW NOTHING!" Thrusting the lance forward, Selvaria's hoping to hit him with surprise attack, but Kuro just grabs the head of the lance with his bare hand without problems. Nevertheless, she's furious at how the opponent is mocking Her Prince. "He's the one giving me a home to stay, the best education, and the love I always wanted..." Hearing that makes Kuro laugh hysterically, causing the Valkyria to become angrier as she keeps hitting him, only for him to dodge easily. "STOP LAUGHING!"

"Why not? You're still young, you still have much to learn about real love." With a well kick to her hand, Kuro manages to make her release her grip on the lance as he kicks it to the air, follows with a kick to her chest and sends her meters away. The lance then drops on his hand, and he teleports right on her and points the tip of the lance right on her neck, millimeters of touching the place. "Love always comes from both sides. One-side love will always lead to disaster." He then pulls out the lance and drops it out of her reach and walks away while calling out the bike. "I let you live today. Remember what I told you, and try to find a real love." He then rides away back to deal with the behemoth tank, leaving a defeated Valkyria there.

Regaining her strength, she reaches for her lance and stands up, feeling humiliated that her power's got overcome by a 'normal' human. And he even talked nonsense during the fight as well! "You... I won't forget this... I will have my revenge..."

She is about to shout at the last part, when a soldier walks to her and reports: "General, Gallia troops have retreated! What's our next order?"

Deciding to let the fight be in the back of her mind, Selvaria orders: "We head straight to His Grace now! Do not slow down!"

* * *

"LEAVING THE PRINCE AND THAT VALKYRIA TO LIVE? WHAT THE HELL ARE YOU TWO THINKING?" Largo shouts, trying to be louder than the firing of the machine guns from the behemoth tank.

"Kuro has his reasons, and he explained it to me. If those two die now, the future will lead into a bad path."

"SO NOW HE'S A FORTUNE TELLER?" Rosie shouts.

"... You don't understand. Anyway, just keep hitting the tank. It's going down soon." True enough, after Alicia, Uni and Edy destroyed the radiators, the tank's defense is weakened, allowing the Lancers to land several hits on the tank, making it break in a few parts.

"You have a lot of explanations to do, both of you. Especially why Isara got spooked after touching him." Alicia tries to pick off any infantry in her sight.

"That depends."

After a few more shots, the tank is completely destroyed. From the destroyed tank, Maximilian runs off with a few black marks on his face. "Damn it, losing Batomys to those rabbles..."

"I get him on my sight." Marina aims her gun right at the head.

Uni then spots someone on the hill, and she sighs. "Marina, don't waste the bullet. It won't hit him."

"Not until I try." Marina pulls the trigger and sees the bullet flying in the straight way... only to hit something in mid-air and deflect out, hitting another Scout instead, giving another Imp soldiers to start bringing Maximilian to safety. She sees another trace of bullet, she follows it through her scope to see Kuro with a sniper rifle which is smoking on the head of the barrel. "... So that's what you meant, huh?" She then looks back to see the other general starting to cover the prince as the Imperial Army starts retreating. "At least we're alive now."

* * *

"Isara, tell us what you saw." Welkin says in worry.

Everyone in squad 7 has gathered around a campfire, as Isara is in Alicia's arms, still shivering of whatever she saw when she touched Kuro.

"It's... it's horrible. The Valkyrur... the Darcsens... fighting in a bloody battle..."

"Vision Of The Past." Uni says, causing everyone's attention. "A unique thing of Kuro, letting him watch any events happened in the past. What Isara saw was probably the fights between Valkyrur and the old Darcsens."

"It... it was. I saw what happened to Barious as well... The Valkyrur was the one destroyed it, not the Darcsens..."

Everyone turns silence after hearing that. What they have known so far turned out to be a lie...

"History is written by the victors." Kuro suddenly walks to them and sits next to Uni. "Now you know the truth about the Darcsens. They did nothing wrong, but the Valkyrur put all the blames on them."

The silence keeps on for a while... then Welkin asks a crucial question: "Faldio has told me that... you two aren't human... what are you?"

Now that causes everyone to completely turn to the duo. Kuro immediately shoots it down: "I'm not answering today. Not when that damn General is still in his chair."

"His?" Alicia asks in confusion. "I thought the one..."

"I'm talking about Damon. Until I manage to bring him out of his position, I'm not giving out who we really are." He then stands up and walks away, with nobody really dares to stop him.

"Sorry about his... sudden change of behavior. He always becomes like it when he sees anything unfair, like the blames on Darcsens."

"..." Rosie slowly regrets what she has thought so far to the general race, but still keeps her hatred towards a few ones she remembered.

"It's really a mess now." Largo scratches his head. "We should take some rest, especially Isara. We should call someone else to help driving Edelweiss, because I'm sure she's not in the right state of mind to..."

"No." Isara suddenly says, still shivering a bit. "I'm just... surprised about the fact. A night rest will be enough for me to get back to normal."

"Isara..." Welkin is very worried. So he says next: "We're all tired now. We should go back to our camp, just like Largo said. Tomorrow, we head back to Randgriz."

* * *

**Chapter 7 end!**

**Thanks to GJO1088's reviews, I have the right motivations to immediately release this chapter.**

**Also, spoilers for the next chapter: The past has a way to catch up. (You know this reference, isolono my friend)**

**See you in the next chapters!**


	8. Chapter 8

**Disclaimer: I do not own Neptunia series or Valkyria Chronicles. They belong to their respective owners.**

**I immediately rush for this chapter because I just finished VC4, and I was *censored* salty at the ending! How dare you ruin my 'No deaths' run like that developers!**

**And if you have read my previous chapters, you know the number of deaths will be reduced drastically. Of the main characters at least.**

**Let's head to the review: **

**To GJO1088: Rarely would Kuro taunt like that. He wouldn't like mocking with that kinds of words.**

**Maybe mentioned only, not the full fight.**

**That event will happen in this chapter, and a little spoiler: It doesn't matter if the .**

**I saw the video, and... it's just a 'maybe' case. Don't get your hopes too high.**

**After finishing VC4, I'm going to guarantee that I'm DEFINITELY going to write the VC4 storyline parallel to the current VC1 in the same story. I'm not letting 'him' die that easily, especially just after seeing that the 'woman' lives!**

**That's it, for now. Let's head to the real chapter!**

* * *

Time: Night

Location: Somewhere in Kloden Wildwoods

"I'm worried boss." Largo expresses his concern. "The scouts should have returned already. With Vyse helping them, it would be much faster."

"Maybe they took a long run to be safe." Kuro guesses. "I mean, the Imperial troops could be at any corner."

"Then we should go for a second round. Alicia, Uni, you come with me." Welkin orders the girls.

"Hunting in the night huh?" Preparing her gun, Uni asks in curiosity.

Welkin nods. "If by any chances we find the others, then we return with them. If not, Kuro, you protect the squad until we return."

"Got it." Kuro salutes. Then he says: "Uni, if you're in trouble, call immediately."

"I don't think we will, but okay." Uni replies.

Thirty minutes later

"Hey, we return!" Vyse whispers from the bushes, so that the guns that are pointing at them to lower down. He and the other Scouts then emerge from their hiding spots, as he notices his commander is not here. "Where's Welkin?"

"Currently taking a second round." Kuro answers. "You didn't meet his group, huh?"

"No." Aika replies, then asks back: "So you're taking charge now?"

"I think Largo or Rosie would be better. Welkin told me to protect you only."

Largo just chuckles. "Thought you're already our sec... third-in-command to be exact. The second is Alicia already."

"Hey, I doubt you would like to be under the command of someone who doesn't have any ranks." Kuro then looks up to the sky... "Damn, this is problematic."

Rosie asks: "What have you found?"

"A heavy rain is coming... We better build up some tents now."

"What about the others?" Jann asks in worry.

"Other than Imps, I don't really scare about anything else." Kuro says.

"Then it's settled: We are staying here for the night and wait for Commander's group to return."

* * *

Back to Welkin

"A heavy rain is coming..." Welkin finds out the same problem as Kuro.

"Rain, with this clear sky?" Alicia asks in disbelief.

Uni uses the scope on her weapon to check around... "I think Welkin is right. I saw black clouds heading towards us, and..." A blow of wind comes by, and Uni feels the cool feeling of the rain in it. "This kind of wind can only indicate one thing..."

"Let's keep moving and try to find if we could find somewhere to avoid the rain..."

...

"A cottage... an abandoned one." Welkin opens the door, and sees the state of the place. He then walks inside, followed by the Scout and the Sniper. "At least we have a place to stay. You two stay here, I will try to find some woods to light up a fire."

"Hm... I don't think you need to." Uni opens up a small cabinet, and finds a good amount of fuel in it. "But, do we have fire?"

"I have a lighter here." Welkin pulls out one from his chest pocket.

"Wow, this cottage has much more than we thought." Alicia starts checking the back to find some convenient items. "Though... I think we should leave the food behind. Who knows how long this place has been abandoned." Then she hears a giggle from other girl. "You okay there, Uni?"

"I'm fine. It's just... I know this is not Kuro's work, but at the same time, it's so like him to do so."

Welkin: "Kuro?"

Uni: "I will tell you later. For now, let's light up the fire."

...

"So, about Kuro..." Wrapping herself into one of the blankets, Alicia asks in curiosity.

"He always plans so far ahead that, if we find anything that's too convenient, we would instantly think it being his work." Uni replies, then continues: "Though, sometimes he's as airhead as Welkin here."

"I'm not... Yeah I did, most of the time." Welkin scratches his head in embarrassment.

Alicia giggles. "At least it's airhead for good reasons." Then she changes the topic. "But Welkin, your father is a General in Military, then why don't you follow his steps, instead of your current interest?"

Welkin: "Ah, that? I actually got influences from him."

Uni: "Oh really?"

Welkin nods. "Anytime he's free, we would take a trip collecting bugs and plants on the mountains, or swimming during the time as well. After an amount of time, it has turned into my love for nature."

Alicia: "A general, collecting bugs... the image is a bit hard to believe."

"It's easy to understand though." Uni says. "Everyone looks at my older sister as an independent person, always working her best to help our country. Though, not many actually knows about her dream of being an actor."

"Wow, an actor? Like Rosie?" Alicia wonders.

"Something like that." The Sniper then notices the Scout looking a bit down. "What's wrong?"

"You two sure have a good family to take care of..." Alicia says, her voice having hints of jealousy.

"Oh... We're sorry..." Welkin immediately apologizes, not knowing that it hurts her.

"It's okay, I am used to it..."

"Kuro used to take care of a few orphans too, so he might already know about your conditions already." Uni says, gaining a little smile on Alicia's face.

"So he did... he's such a good friend, isn't he?"

"He is..." Uni trails off a bit, then says: "About..."

* * *

Hours later. Still at night and rain doesn't stop.

*Creak* The sound of the door opening causes Uni to grab her gun and point the barrel towards the barrel, and she faces another barrel of a gun in an Imperial Shocktrooper's hands. His face's covered with the mask, but she has already pointed towards it, because one clean head shot will be easy in the current situation... however, to the girl's surprise, the soldier drops his gun and then falls on the ground, and now she notices the bullet wounds on his back. 'He should have pulled the trigger... but why?' One question subtly passes her mind, however, she throws it into the back of her mind. "Doesn't matter... Have to give him some first aid first."

Uni puts down her gun and pulls the man inside, then uses her leg to kick the door shut, that makes the others wake up. Welkin opens his eyes and asks: "What is..." Though the next words are dead when he sees what presents before him. "Uni, what happened?"

"He's shot. Alicia, can you give me some medicine to fix him up?" Uni orders, while pulling the soldier's helmet off so the man could breathe freely, which shows the face of pain.

Hearing that makes Alicia immediately gets to action as she starts pulling out first aid kit, and pulling out the armor on the Trooper so she could take a good look on the wounds. "The bullet wounds are too deep..." The Scout says in worry, but still tries her best to help the man.

After a few minutes, Alicia has done her best to stop the wounds from leaking blood, but she couldn't stop it leaking in his body. "I'm sorry... I did my best..."

"Damn it..." Welkin curses. A man is dying before him, and he could do nothing to save him.

"I guess that's it, huh?" The Shocktrooper suddenly speaks up, catching everyone's attention. "Dying for the cause of a nation... this time getting shot by an ally no less..."

Uni asks in disbelief: "Your comrades shot you?"

The soldier nods. "I can't stand the fact the Empire has ordered to kill everyone who doesn't follow its cause. So I have shot even the 'allies' to protect the people, and... I guess you can guess the rest..." He then coughs, as more blood coming out of his mouth.

"Stop talking. You need to rest." Alicia orders as she tries to keep the man stably on the floor.

"I'm dying, I can feel it." He then reaches for his note and gives it to Uni. "Please keep it, so I could still be remembered."

Uni hesitantly takes it. "I... I will try to keep it..." However, the moment she sees the cover of the note, she sees a symbol WAY TOO FAMILIAR to her. She immediately asks the man in hurry: "Wait a minute. Where did you get that symbol?"

"W...What symbol?" The man asks, he's trying his best to speak back.

"The one on the cover. **The N-word**."

"That... *chuckles* you won't believe it, but... I have died before... **in another world**..."

"... Then that means I could save you!" That outburst from Uni surprises everyone, as she pulls out a flute and then starts playing... with no sounds coming out.

"Uni, what are you doing?" Welkin asks, still watching between her and the man.

Uni doesn't reply and continues her soundless work... at least, to Welkin and Alicia's ears. To the man, however: "Ah, what a beautiful song..." The man then feels the pain slowly fade away, replaced with new energy. "I feel... better now..." The man sits up, and to add up to the surprise, Welkin and Alicia see the wounds having closed up, leaving no traces of wounds whatsoever. The man looks at his hands to see they starts regaining color. "This... is incredible..." Then the song stops, making him to turn to Uni... and exclaims in shock: "Wait,** Lady Black Sister?** Why are you here, and why are you wearing Gallian's uniform?"

"Now you notice?" Putting the flute down, Uni asks in curiosity.

The man sheepishly scratches his head. " I was in the verge of dying there. I didn't think you would be here..."

"I can answer it, but..." Uni glances at Welkin and Alicia, both having shock and surprise on their face. "We are going to explain to them first..."

"Uni... you know people from Empire?" Alicia says in disbelief. "I thought you..."

"I didn't know him, personally." Uni denies. "But, I can guess his story. And Welkin, let me ask him a few questions to confirm first before I could explain everything."

"...Alright." Welkin complies, though a bit hesitantly.

"Thank you." She then turns to the Imperial Shocktrooper. "First, I want to ask about your name, in the past."

"It's Jonathan, First Lieutenant of Planeptune's Military. I was on the mission to find out a way to defeat **The Corrupted Goddess**. However we were ambushed by a group of Viral Beasts, and one by one we were killed. I was about to be killed as well if he didn't come..."

"And I assume that's Kuro, right?" Uni connects the dots.

"You know him? How?" Jonathan asks, extremely surprised that the CPU Candidate has already died at that point...

"I think I understand now. Thank you, Jonathan." Uni says, as she turns to the Gallians. "You two remember about our conversation, talking about us not being human?" The two nod. "Well, let me shed the light on the matter. Kuro was human, however, to the point Kuro met Jonathan, he is already dead."

"He died? But then, this Kuro..." Alicia says fearfully.

"The same. Kuro managed to regain some life force, but he's still counted as dead." Letting the two absorb the info, Uni continues: "About me... I'm a CPU Candidate, or Console Patron Unit. Or a better word to understand... I'm a Goddess, my title is Black Sister."

"A...a goddess..." Welkin repeats, extremely surprised. Then, he says: "No wonder. It could explain much about your weapons and..."

"No. You guys can actually make it yourself. Just don't expect the same level of power as Kuro's weapons." Uni jokingly says. "Anyway, Jonathan was from a timeline that my sister, my friends and I had died to defeat an evil force. However... it seemed it wasn't enough to stop it..."

"Before continuing, lady Black Sister..." Jonathan interrupts. "But if you're dead, then why..."

"As I said before, timeline. I am from a different one than yours. We just started trying to find some ways to save our sisters when Kuro came and helped, like how you met him. And he told us what happened to your old world... and it's not very pretty..."

"Figured." Jonathan sighs. "Even that wouldn't help... but if you're here..."

"Kuro is currently with the rest of these two's squad, protecting them as we speak."

"... *Sigh* If that's the case, then I think I would be your prisoner, huh?"

"Let me call Kuro and ask for his suggestions."

* * *

Back to Squad 7

"Worried about your brother?" Kuro asks, as he's reading the book next to Isara, who's trying to sleep but can't do so.

"Yes, I am. Wouldn't you be the same about Uni?"

"Both of us have faith in our beloved. Though, I doubt anything could hurt Uni badly..." His phone then rings up. "Speaking of the devil..." He presses the call button and answers: "Hey Uni. Having a good rest in that cottage?"

"I, knew, it..." Uni's voice indicates the 'I know you too well' thought of hers, then she follows: "Yes, we are. Also, we found one of your friends from the Empire."

"...Huh? I haven't made any friends from the Imperial Army... at least, not yet anyway." That catches Isara's attention, and he turns the volume up so the girl could hear the conversation.

"Does the name Jonathan ring any bells?" That makes Kuro stop and think for a second...

And he answers: "Patch him through." He opens the camera up...

"Yo, Kuro! You fixed that half dead face of yours?" The moment he sees Kuro's face, Jonathan immediately makes that comment.

"... *Chuckle* You could say it like that. It's good to see you reincarnated, Jonathan."

"Reincarnated?" Both sides have people asking that question.

"Yeah, reincarnated... you could call for a better time, Uni."

"I would. However, since he's an Imperial Unit, I want to ask you about what we should do about him."

"Well... I have one plan that needs me to go directly into their base... but with Jonathan, maybe I don't have to."

Jonathan smirks. "I just got out of death twice man. Don't send me back to the battlefield that fast."

"*Chuckle* It's not that dangerous. I want to ask you to give a message to Jaeger."

"Oh? Then you're lucky. I am directly under his command."

"Then it's good. I will send it towards your phone. Better check it. For now, I will close the call. Uni, explain everything."

"You got it." The call then stops.

Kuro puts his phone back and sees Isara's curious eyes. "Yeah, I think it's time for you to know..."

* * *

"My phone?" Jonathan asks in curiosity. "This world doesn't have that advanced technology..."

"I think he meant your old one. You have regained your pocket dimension, mind you."

"Oh?" Making a pulling move in his pocket, Jonathan pulls out his phone from his past life. "It's true..."

"Before this could go further..." Alicia demands. "We would like to ask you, a lot, about your identity. You said you're a Goddess, but are there any proofs for it?"

"Of course." Uni's body then glows up... and replaced her place, a girl with white hair tied into two drills, her pupils are green, her outfit is a black bodysuit, black arm wears and leg wears. "I am Black Sister, and this is my Goddess form."

Feeling the power emitting from the Goddess being even stronger than the fire, Alicia has no choice to but accept it. "... I... have to believe it huh? But, why did Kuro talk about Jonathan being reincarnated?"

"Yeah, I did die." The person in question answers. "I only saw Kuro before I died. I left him something that might help our current situation before. After that... we have to ask Kuro to know more about it."

"He could only protect it for above a decade before everything went to downfall." Uni says. "Anyone managing to escape the place or reincarnated like you confirmed it. Then he made another portal and went to our world with his children and Histoire."

"Histoire... well she's a tome in the first place... wait, children?" That makes him drop his focus on his phone and look at the CPU. "He married?"

Uni nods. Welkin then asks: "Wait... he looks like he's just about twenty... then how old is he, really?"

"Two centuries old, could be more." Uni says nonchalantly.

* * *

"TWO HUNDRED YEARS OLD?" Everyone in Squad 7 has heard the conversation and entered the tent (much to Kuro's annoyance) and has asked several questions.

"No wonder you call me 'boy' back then." Now Largo understands. "Though, that wasn't really a good taunt."

"I know. Anyway, what do you want to ask next?"

"Your wife... or wives if all of those rings are for marriage." Aika points her fingers towards Kuro's left hands, which has three rings in his middle fingers. "Don't tell me you have left..."

"All three are living happily, mind you." Kuro knows what she's saying. "Two hundred years old in my case, but they're just about fifty, well forty in the case with my third wife."

"... You married them that young?" Rosie still doesn't understand the current status of his.

"Okay, let's get started from the beginning. I met my first two wives when I was 22, with them being in the same age. Two years later I married them, and a year after that, we got two kids, one for each. After raising them for ten years, they got teleported ahead about... eight years counting my children's age. To me, it's nearly thirty years, because I had to stay in a place where one years meant one day in my children's place. And... well... about my third wife's case... she devoted herself to me after I managed to save her mother and her nation. And also to not get confused, that's love as well. Not the 'you know what' in your mind, okay?"

That drops the current matter... only to be brought up again: "They don't even get upset when you go out that long?"

"... What feels like seconds to them is years to me. And they already knew from the beginning, but they accepted it."

Jann coos: "They really love you if they can withstand it."

"Okay, back to the current situation a bit." Rosie interrupts. "About that Imperial... what do you want him to do?"

"Just want to ask him to send a message to Jaeger. I don't want to kill him, considering he's helping Maximilian just to find a way to help his country to be independent, like Gallia."

"Does Maximilian even know that?"

"He does, Isara. However, as long as Jaeger is useful, the Prince won't kill him. He does have a little honor in not backstabbing people... at least, if I have checked it right."

"Who?"

"Maximilian."

"Back to the guy, Jonathan isn't he? May I ask if you could even trust him? You said you met him for just a few minutes in the past."

"He was dying, and he gave me his mission, I accepted it and completed it. I think that's enough to gain his trust to me. And due to what I am now, he could even trust me even more."

"And what are you now, other than being just a half-dead person?" Largo asks, thinking that's just that.

"A CPU."

* * *

"Kuro is also one?" Now that makes Jonathan exclaim in surprise.

"Then what do you think how he got his normal looking appearance back?" Uni says, then scratches her head nervously. "Of course, he fooled us in the beginning though, saying that the Dark form was his transformation..."

Alicia: "So the appearance of his we're seeing now..."

"Is him if he's not dead. Also, calling him CPU is both right and wrong at the same time, because he's using the power, but not letting it fuse into him."

"Why not? I mean, it's a logical sense..."

"To normal human. However, the power of CPU is a complete counterpart to his Dark power, so if he combined them, he would end up killing himself. Luckily he knows how to control them at the same time, and that also makes him more powerful than any of us."

"So that's how he could defeat the Valkyria..." Welkin then remembers the face-off between them and the General of Empire.

"You know, it's a bit too late now." Uni notices the sky being super dark. "How about we rest and then return in the early morning?"

* * *

"You still dare to return, mister Fritz?" A captain notices the desert man walking towards the camp, with the Imperial soldiers pointing their guns towards him.

"Our men were killing innocent people who wanted nothing of this. I can't just stand there doing nothing to stop it."

"We're currently in Gallia's territory..."

"And yet these Gallians helped me treating with the wounds, despite us being enemies. If even enemies could sympathize with each other, then no nonsense killing would happen."

"..." The captain can't really argue with that. They are under the order to kill, doesn't mean they want it. "Very well then, I will..."

"Sorry captain, but once this is done, I'm not going to be under your command." Jonathan interrupts.

"... With guns pointing at you, you sure have a sharp tongue. What do you want?"

"The one who saved me was the mercenary. He wanted me to send a message towards General Jaeger."

"... Give us your armor and weapons, then you can go. He's inside."

"Thanks. And Goddesses bless you, Captain."

"Goddesses?" The Captain asks back with confusion, but Jonathan doesn't reply back. "Strange... wouldn't it be Valkyrias... Never mind."

...

"Hm... interesting..." Jaeger is reading the message with total focus. "He said he could help me with our independence... and he's planning to do it even when I'm trying to kill him... *Laugh* Okay, miser Fritz, whatever you and he are planning, I'm likely to take apart with. What do you want?"

Jonathan just chuckles. "Please, sir. The name Fritz is dead, call me Jonathan from now on. I have no roles in this plan of him, but since I'm under your command, he asked me to do it for him. Also, please give a death certificate towards my family, so they won't have to wait for me."

"Well, I could do that easily. But, shouldn't you do that yourself?"

"Sorry, but I'm going back to the people I could serve with free will. It's been a pleasure serving you, and may the Goddesses protect you and your people."

"Thank you. And I'm assuming those 'Goddesses' are the ones you could do so."

"Indeed, sir." The former Shocktrooper then draws out a button, and grabs the phone on the table, making the message disappear. "It's time to say goodbye." He presses the button, and he's enveloped in a bright light before disappear completely.

"... *Chuckle* This is going to be interesting." Jaeger says to himself. "Let's see if you could keep that promise, mister Kuro."

* * *

Time skip

"So he returned back to Planeptune?" Uni is at the shooting range, along with Kuro and other Snipers to test out the new upgrades for them. Right now their guns could hold ten bullets at the same time, and some of the guns are semi-automatic, so they won't have to take their eyes off the scoop.

"Yeah. He returned as a military man again. Though, that gives the Jonathan of our world a heart attack."

"*Giggle* Yeah, I know." She then temporarily turns back to see the girls behind the parameter. "Care to tell what they are after?"

"*Groan* Don't, just don't. After those stories got leaked, they're all over me just to ask 'experiences' about dating or so."

"And yet nothing about the other things?"

"They just ignored everything. Even the part of 'I could end everything'."

"Well, since you said that it would make them be dependent on us, and that's not Gallia-like."

"Ah yeah, I did say so..." Reloading the gun (out of habits), Kuro continues: "About our next mission..."

"A collaboration with the Rangers from Federation. But from what I heard, most of them are from Gallia itself."

"..."

"You know who, don't you?"

"Yeah... and I just got some notices about... these Rangers, having one member short in the future."

"... So you're going to stop it?"

"Yeah... at least, not me directly."

* * *

**Chapter 8 end!**

**I wrote this chapter down in one day, indicating how really pissed off I was when I saw the ending. And I'm sure I will rage again once I finish VC2 (know the ending, just don't want to get through it at the moment).**

**As you can see, the next event will be the meeting between Squad 7 and Squad E. See you in the next chapters!**


	9. Chapter 9

**Wow, the ideas come faster than I expected. High chance that I'm going to write the next chapter immediately after this one.**

**Also, this chapter is the prove about writing the VC4 storyline along with VC1. And expect changes in VC4 story, like, a lot.**

**I have PMed the reviewers, so no answering in here.**

**Let's get to the main story!**

* * *

"So we're going to do a joint training exercise with Gallia Militia?" Raz exclaims again in shock. "I mean, it's Gallia our hometown, but we're in a middle of an important operation right now! We can't just be called out to do such things that..."

"I think they must have a good reason to do so." Claude tries to calm his friend down.

Kai thinks about the situation: "The Militia must have contributed a lot if that gained the Federation's interest. However..."

Riley continues: "Their equipment wouldn't be even matched up to Federation's standard weapons. Even if they could follow up with us in skills..."

Claude: "I think that's how they're here. Also, I read the reports saying that they have done for the war effort more than what Gallia's regular armed forces could do."

Raz interrupts: "Okay, maybe they are better than the most, but they are just civilians! We are Rangers, we're supposed to be out there fighting Imps, instead of playing date with them!"

"Well how about we show you all what a 'civilian' like us could do!"

Upon reaching the rendezvous point, Squad E sees the Militia soldiers waiting for them. Two of them, which Claude assumes are the commanders of sort, walks up near them, as the man salutes. "Welcome. Second Lieutenant Welkin Gunther, leader of Militia Squad 7."

Claude nods and greets back: "I'm First Lieutenant Claude Wallace, commander of Squad E. A pleasure to meet you."

"It is all ours." The man then turns to the other soldier and both smile, knowing their first meet is a success.

"So Squad E is around the same age as ours. Kind of a relief, right Rosie?" The girl says as she turns her focus towards a soldier a little further behind.

Rosie snorts. "As if! We're promised that they're from Rangers and Elite Squad. They just look like a bunch of rookies!"

Raz immediately gets triggered by it: "Oh yeah? That's rich coming from the Militia!"

Largo replies apologetically: "Sorry buddy, she's not very... friendly towards strangers. Especially towards... you know, you."

That doesn't calm him down much. "Oh yeah, so? You're having two right in your squad! They're not even wearing protections!"

That catches Claude's attention, as he sees the two mentioned from Raz sitting on the tank of the squad. And true to the Shocktrooper's words, one of them is wearing a dress designed for a relaxing trip, while the other looks like a scientist instead of a soldier, and he's holding a rectangle thing in his left hand. He knows Militia chooses all kinds of civilians who are capable of fighting, but not wearing the Militia's uniform is unheard of, until now.

"Oh? Them?" The girl with Welkin turns towards the two for a second, before turning back to Squad E and says: "Don't mind about them. They know what they're doing."

Riley is about to ask before Miles interrupts: "Forget about it! Look at their tank! That's something else!"

While Miles is ranting about the tank, and the tank driver, who's a Darcsens, talking back to him, Claude takes a look back at the two on the tank. They look way too relaxing in a war, and the girl is even younger than Nico. The Militia would get such...

His radio suddenly speaks up, and he raises the headphone up to listen: "It's a bit impolite to stare at people for too long, you know?" Gasping in surprise, Claude looks back to the tank to see the man smiling at him, with the object being hold next to his left ear. The man then jumps off the tank and pockets the thing, then walks towards Squad E. When the listening range reaches, he says: "Sorry for the late introduction. The name's Kuro, and the girl is Uni. We're both Jack-of-all-trades in Squad 7."

Returning with a handshake, Claude replies: "The name's Claude Wallace... how did you get into my radio earlier?"

Kuro just shrugs. "You will know soon."

Welkin apologizes: "Sorry about my squad members' attitudes, sir. They're not very the best people to start a friendly conversation."

Claude dismisses it: "Don't worry. We both have wild cards in our squads. Also, please drop the formalities. I can see that you're not very comfortable with it. Also we can do this without the official ranks."

Welkin scratches his head. "Thank you s... Claude."

Riley notes to the other girl: "Your commander is very laid-back huh?"

The girl smiles. "That's part of his charm. Anyway, my name is Alicia Melchiott, Scout Leader of Squad 7."

"And I am Riley Miller, Grenadier Leader of Squad E... Say, what did Kuro mean by 'Jack-of-all-trade'? Did that mean he and the Uni girl fit into every role?"

Alicia nervously smiles. "To put it simple, yes. However, Kuro would just charge right through the enemies with no seconds of thought."

Riley rubs her temple, remembering another soldier being the same. "Don't tell me you have a Raz too. One existing is already enough..."

Alicia: "I think Kuro is worse. I mean, he even ordered Welkin to use Edelweiss' main cannon to shoot straight at him..."

Riley widens her eyes in shock. "A direct hit? But..."

Alicia: "Yeah, he could dodge the tank shots. Close range also."

Riley: "No wonder he called himself Jack-of-all-trade. I'm wondering how he performs in this..."

After a few more chatters, Claude says: "I think all that's left is the training underway. Let's both our squads give out the best shot!"

Welkin: "Right!" Though, when he turns to Kuro... "Uh, Kuro, are you going to..."

Kuro just chuckles back. "Do you want the training to end properly or quickly?"

Alicia giggles nervously. "Why am I not surprised at your answer?"

Claude asks in surprise: "He's not going to join us?"

Welkin: "Maybe in the next training section. For now, let's focus on the current one."

Raz then taunts: "Hey, you better give us a good result. We came all this way, so it's better be worth it. But hey, what can we expect from a Militia. Stay out of our way and it will be fine."

Rosie is triggered. "Oh yeah? How about..."

Largo stops her: "Don't sweat it. If we prove ourselves, he won't have much to say about us."

Rosie: "He's not... urgh, fine."

Largo: "On the bright side, our weapons have a nice change from them. Let's put it into the test."

...

Claude warns Raz: "Remember, we're coordinating with them, so don't overextend yourself, okay?"

Raz dismisses it completely: "Yeah yeah, coordinate. Whatever, let's rock!"

Riley sighs. "This is not going to end well."

Kai: "I know. I will keep an eye on him."

Claude then notices Largo's weapon, instead of the normal lance, it's a green tube of sort with a handle and trigger like a normal gun. He then asks: "Riley, can you identify the lancer's weapon? I have never seen a weapon like that."

Riley takes a look, then shakes her head. "I haven't, either. Did Gallia have upgraded their weapons without us noticing?"

Miles: "It could be. I mean, their tank has those marvelous upgrades! It might be the same with the weapons."

Claude: "Could be. Let's see how it works. Alright, our first camp is nearby. Raz, you and Zaiga take point and draw their attentions. Kai, you take Riley and Rosetta to go around and ambush them."

"Got that boss! Zaiga, let's go!" "Right behind ya!" The two Shocktroopers run ahead and start firing at the opponents, causing the nearby units to take cover and fire back.

On the other hand, Rosetta leads the way and manages to take down a Shocktrooper behind the grass before rushing ahead with the Sniper and the Grenadier. Kai then helps the Scout to take down the nearby soldiers for Riley to safely shoot the gatling gun from afar.

"So far so good from our side." Claude notes. Then he hears a tank being 'destroyed', and turns to see said tank... with its Ragnite core not being touched at all. Claude looks further to see Largo with his weapon pointing straight at the tank, with smoke popping out of the barrel.

"U...Unbelievable!" Miles says in disbelief. "That lancer just one-shot that tank!"

"Wait, really?" He was looking at the others so he didn't notice that. That weapon is more powerful than a normal lance?

Laurent also confirms it: "I was about to shoot it too. Did the Regular Army give the Militia new weapons already?"

Claude: "We don't know for sure. But for now, keep going... Raz, don't head too far! The Militia is still trying to catch up!"

Raz ignores it. "Hey, we're Rangers! Training or combat, we fight the same! So I'm not sitting around and wait for them to..." He then faces one Shocktrooper, however, he is taken down bit a shot to the head from the other side. "Wow... well, their Snipers are doing their work... what the?" Only when he turns to see that: It's not a Sniper shooting the guy, but a Scout! And said Scout is having a rifle with a scope! "Since when does a Scout rifle have a scope?"

'Now this is interesting.' Claude thinks to himself. 'Their weapons are on a different level. Also, their commander is a potential one. No wonder they have achieved what the reports have said about them.'

Kai immediately takes aim to a soldier in Raz's blind spot. "Raz, focus! We're still in the training!"

"Sh!t, almost forgot."

...

"That went better than I expected." Kuro comments, having watched everyone finishing the training. "Thought there would be more arguing..." He stops himself to take a sip from his coffee cup while the other hand's holding a newspaper.

"HEY! You sat there and did nothing!" Raz accuses the man. "If you're the Jack-of-all-trade, then how about you go solo that one again!" He then hears nervous chuckles coming from the others of Squad 7. "What's so funny? Don't tell me you are on his side?"

"In normal circumstances..." Welkin starts. "You are right. However..."

Uni continues: "We're talking about Kuro here, so normal rules don't apply to him."

Kai asks in curiosity: "Normal rules?"

Raz cracks his knuckles. "Oh yeah? I bet he couldn't even..."

"Fight back?" Raz stops himself, and feels two sharp things putting right under his chin, with Kuro suddenly right behind him. "Please, Close Quarter Combat is my specialty. Guns are just child play to me." The swords then get pulled out, leaving Raz unharmed, and Kuro puts them into the scabbards that also appeared out of nowhere. "Be careful of what you're saying." And with that, Kuro just gets back to the resting camp and sits back to his chair, starting to read the newspaper again.

That makes all members of Squad E hang their mouths in shock. None of them didn't even see him moving at all, and yet... Claude then asks Welkin: "What just happened?"

Welkin nervously answers: "That's normal in Squad 7. Please pay him no mind."

Raz then lets out a cold breath. "Gah! What the hell? I thought I was gonna die there!"

"That's for trying to pick a fight with Kuro." Uni replies. "Anyway, Alicia and Isara have prepared some tea and snacks over there. We should join them now."

The moment she says that, Kai sniffs and finds the delicious smell of: "Is that... bread that's I'm smelling?"

Alicia, with a basket of bread in her hands, replies: "Yeah, I just finished baking. Hope we can share it with each other."

Rosie just chuckles and says: "No wonder you're so early. You're very dedicated with your work huh?"

Before Raz could comment, Kai has already rushed towards Alicia and enjoyed the nice smell. "It looks so good! And you even did it without proper equipment as well!"

Riley giggles at Kai's attitude, but she's also on her same side: "You really put your heart into it, huh?"

Alicia: "I do." She then places the basket on the table, followed by Isara, and starts giving out the bread. "Here, go ahead and enjoy it."

Claude nods. "Thanks Alicia. Come on, everyone. Alicia made this specially for us."

During the break, Claude asks Welkin: "We noticed that your weapons were very strange. Mind telling us when the Regular Army gave them to you?"

Welkin: "Oh, our weapons? No no, Militia's weapons got upgraded thanks to Kuro and Uni. They're the ones providing the blueprints for that."

"Kuro and Uni?" Claude looks at the two, who are also enjoying the bread while chatting with the others. "No offense, but they don't look like from military..."

Welkin nods. "They aren't Militia either. They act as mercenaries, and once the war with the Empire is over, they will leave."

Claude: "Uhm, won't you?"

Welkin: "They're not Gallian, if you haven't noticed. They helped us because they felt like to. If they help the Empire, then the Federation won't be safe."

Claude: "They're that powerful?"

"Both in terms of knowledge and power. Seriously, Kuro soloed with a Valkyria and won without a scratch."

Now that catches Squad E's attention, as Kai asks: "Wait, a Valkyria? I thought they're just myths."

Isara shudders a bit remembering about the fights between Valkyrur and the ancient Darcsens. "They are. Kuro and Faldio confirmed it as well."

Riley: "But... if the stories are true, then a Valkyria must be extremely strong."

Uni: "I don't know how fast the news are, but you can re-check the fights on Vasel Bridge and in Kloden Wildwood."

Claude: "Wait, that's you? And the one in white... that's must be Kuro..."

Welkin: "Yep, that's us."

Claude: "Well, thanks to your efforts, Gallia managed to withstand the Empire's attacks. And with that, we were able to push into their territory."

Welkin: "Thank you for the..."

"Imperial troops." That suddenly drops all actions, as everyone looks at Kuro, who has placed the coffee cup and the newspaper on the table. "A klick to the West. Heavy tanks and infantry. Heading towards a city."

Claude is surprised at the sudden change of tone. "What are you... wait, the wind..." He then feels the change in the air, as he turns to see at the West... just in time for an explosion to occur and smoke to start raising up. "How did you..."

"No time to talk." Kuro then orders: "Everyone, start heading towards the city. Uni, you fly there and update the situation, commence the attack if necessary."

"Hey! You're not our boss!" Raz shouts back. However, he's completely ignored by Kuro as the latter already runs ahead. "Hey, listen damn..." However, he shuts up himself when a dangerous-looking motorbike suddenly appears midway of Kuro's runway, and the person just jumps on it and drives away with ridiculously high speed. "Could it be any weirder..."

Welkin comments: "Kuro will always be Kuro." He then turns to Uni. "Please, head there first. We will catch up soon."

Riley is a bit upset that Squad 7 is going to let one girl head to the scene alone. "Hey Welkin! You can't just..." However, a flash of light makes her stop and turn, and when the light vanishes, instead of Uni, she sees a white hair girl in a black body suit with wings hovering behind her back. "What the? Who are you?"

"Forget me already? It's Uni, or Black Sister in this form." The girl answers, surprising all members of Squad E. "You all need to head out soon, the Imperial won't wait for us to save the citizens." And with that, without any supports, the girl flies up to the air and heads to the city.

Kai manages to find her voice first: "What... what just happened?"

Welkin exclaims, snapping everyone out of their dazes: "It's not important now. Everyone, we have to save everyone in the city."

Claude nods and says: "Everyone, get on your gears! Our next destination is the city nearby! Squad E, move!"

"Squad 7, grab your gears and head out!"

* * *

Time skip

"The city is under control, sir!" One of the Imperial Scouts reports to the tank commander.

"Good. Start patrolling. We don't want to be suddenly get hit from behind, do we?" Then his radio kicks up as he puts it on his ears...

"How about I kick your front door and get in!" As soon as the words end, the main gate of the city gets blown up, sending the soldiers fly away. The commander turns to see what just happened, and gasps in surprise. In the smoke stands one soldier, wearing a brown bulky armor, in his right hand is a smoking tube, looking similar to a lancer, while on his right shoulder is a machine gun. The commander's radio then kicks in again: "You pick the wrong place to raid, pals. Surrender now, or Death will be glad to get his hands on you!"

The commander grits his teeth in anger. That man's just one soldier, while he has an army! "Soldiers, kill that man!"

Nearby Shocktroopers and Scouts start firing at the man, however, all shots meet the armor plates and drop harmlessly on the ground. Putting the tube on the left shoulder, the man pulls out his machine gun and starts firing back, killing several soldiers and forcing the others to go into hiding immediately. One of the tanks starts moving the main cannon towards the lone soldier, but he stops firing and raises his left arm towards him. The AP Shell shoots out, it collides and creates an explosion with smoke spreading around and blocks the view. The commander smirks, thinking that the soldier's dead, however, he widens his eyes in terror as the shot turns out to hit a shield, that's retractable as it starts to do so as the soldier starts firing again.

"Sir! Federation Troops and Gallia Militia are nearby!" One of the Snipers reports. "One's behind the man, while the other is heading from the East."

"We already have this one as the problem already!" Commander shouts in anger. A shot gazes over his head, forcing him to duck in. "All tanks, focus on him! He won't be able to attack with that shield on!"

...

"Kuro's kinda pinched down there." Black Sister speaks through the earpiece, as she's sniping the soldiers in the East of the City, giving Squad 7 a way to get in.

"Kuro, getting stuck? Sounds stupid to me." Largo blasts a tank with his rocket launcher. "What is he doing?"

Uni: "Probably not giving himself out, because he's wearing a Juggernaut armor."

Rosie: "That bulky thing? Heh, maybe he's planning to give Squad E a piece for this too."

Alicia: "Considering who he is, that's probably the case."

...

"Hey Kuro! Where did you get that armor from? Because I want one!" Raz shouts, while firing from behind a sand barricade. "With that thing, I'm the True Invincible!"

"It's not that powerful." Kneeling down and reloading, Kuro answers. "This armor can only stand for a few direct hits from the tanks before it becomes useless. That's why I need the shield. The armor has already taken a few shots already."

"Still, that's a fine quality armor you have." Riley speaks. "And the weapons you and Squad 7 are using as well."

"Thanks." One bullet gazes over Kuro's head. "Riley, a gatling gun, ten meters, in that intersection. Can you make it?"

"Of course!" *Boom!* "Easy!"

"Good work." Kuro then jumps off the barricade and starts rushing towards, followed by Raz and Zaiga, and suppresses the enemies so they have no choices but to retreat. "Uni, what's the situation?"

"Already done here. Squad 7 is heading from the East. Check your fire."

"Yeah." One of the tanks gets blown up, and Jann gives a thumb up to Kuro, before Squad 7 members start attacking from the right and behind the enemy line. "The cavalry is here..."

"KURO! YOUR NINE!" He immediately turns to the direction Uni has warned, however, a tank shell manages to get a direct hit on him, knocking him off his feet and burning him.

"SH!T!" Thanks to Kuro standing in the way, Raz and Zaiga only get knocked back with no real damage. Raz immediately gets up pulls Kuro out of the fighting zone and into hiding. "Damn it man! If you're dead..."

"I'm already dead, mind you." Despite being burnt, Kuro still sits up normally, making the two back away a bit so the fire won't touch them. He then starts removing parts of armor out of him. "My armor's shredded. It's unusable now."

Zaiga: "Well yeah. You got shot directly by a tank shell."

After few seconds of removing, Kuro stands straight up. "Then I better give it a proper answer to it huh?" Then he just walks out of the plain sight for the tank to see.

"WAIT A DAMN SECOND!" Zaiga tries to pull Kuro back but it's a bit too late as the tank has already loaded another shell and shot it right at Kuro. However, to Raz and Zaiga's utter disbelief, Kuro just BACK-FLIP KICKS the shell to the air, and while it's still airborne, he runs up to the wall of a building with high speed, jumps off the wall and kicks the shell right back at the tank. The impact is right at the weakest part of the tank, and it causes the whole tank to explode.

Landing down with a big *THUD!*, Kuro turns back to the Shocktroopers. "Don't worry. I know what I'm doing."

The Rangers hang their mouths down in shock. Then Rosie walks towards and says: "Hey, you two are going to bite a fly if you keep that up."

Raz immediately turns. "You just saw what he did, right? How can you still be so calm!"

Rosie rubs her temple. "We will talk about it later. For now, let's deal with those Imps first."

Hearing that makes Raz change his attitude a bit, as he readies his gun: "Now you're saying it. Try to keep up, will ya?"

Rosie nods. "Though, I have to give it to you. You could hold yourself very well against that large amount of enemies."

Zaiga shoots down a soldier before saying: "I think it's Kuro's help for enduring the shots for us."

Rosie: "Still impressive enough. Let's push them back!"

Kuro nods and pulls out his dual revolvers. "Let's continue the party!"

Meanwhile, Kai and Marina are picking off any Imps who turns their backs on them. After a few shots, Kai commends: "Miss Marina, our aims are quite on point."

"Thanks."

"By the way, I haven't seen that gun anywhere. Gallia has made a new series?"

"Not them. Kuro." Pulling trigger one more before reloading. "He calls it PSG1. I'm using an extended mag so I can shoot ten times before reloading."

"Extended mag... Haven't thought about that before..."

"Gallia focuses more on the strength and the accuracy, so they may have that over their heads." Then she sees Kuro running-and-gunning the Imps. "Figure."

Kai asks in worry: "How could he still be so aggressive after losing his armor? He has no protection now." But she also detects one on the rooftop nearby so she takes the Imp out immediately.

"Kuro doesn't need one." A gaze of bullet flies over her head from behind, Marina immediately turns back, identifies the person and shoots. "That's just him showing off his arsenal of weapons."

"For real?"

"A perk of living for so long."

"Huh?" However, that's much Kai could get from Marina, before both of them return their focuses on taking down the enemies.

* * *

"The Imps are retreating." Uni calls out from up high through the earpiece.

"We can also see that. They give up trying to fight us." Kuro answers, while pulling his sword out of a body of a dead Sniper, whose idea was to shoot Raz who was right next to him.

"Well, thanks for your help. Nearly got hit there." Said Shocktrooper with a thankful attitude.

"Don't sweat it. That's for pulling me out of danger earlier."

Raz then sees Rosie walking towards them, and he says: "Nice job out there. You fight like a pro back then! Never thought you guys could keep up with us that easily."

Rosie smiles. "We have our hellish trainers for that."

Isara says in surprise: "We've been so coordinated in that fight! Like both squads have fought together for years!"

Welkin agrees: "Tactics all come from soldier's experiences. What I saw today taught me more than any military training did."

Claude: "We also learnt a lot from you as well. We glad you came, and thank you Squad 7."

Riley: "Alright everyone, let's return to the base!"

Kai nods and is about to leave, however, Kuro has grabbed her shoulder to stop her. "I need to talk to you something. It's a bit personal."

Kai is a bit surprised, but decides to comply. She then says to Riley: "I'm going to talk with Kuro for a bit. You guys head back first."

Riley: "Oh, okay. Just remember to come back. I'm sure Alicia will bake some more bread soon."

"Yeah! I'm not going to miss it!" Once everyone is gone, Kai impatiently asks Kuro: "So what do you want to talk about? I don't want to delay the..."

"I want to talk about Kai Schulen. The real one."

That immediately drops the happiness in Kai's face. "W...What are you talking about? I'm Kai Schulen, the sniper of..."

"You're Leena Schulen, her brother. You were asked by him to replace his place." Sitting on the sidewalk, Kuro continues: "Before you're trying to say something, no, I'm not accusing you or anything. Nor would I report it. Instead, I have information about him, and I want to talk to you first, so you could tell it to your comrades later."

Being caught red-handed, Leena has no choice to but to listen. "Okay, talk."

"I have to warn you, I'm not going to say out the obvious, because I want you to find it out by yourself what I say here today means. If I say it right now, you would flat out deny it."

Leena sighs. "How could I deny something I don't even know?"

"Just saying first hand. Okay, I will head to the main part. Your brother, Kai Schulen, is dead."

Leena gasps in surprise, and Kuro allows her a few seconds to swallow it. Then, Leena orders: "Continue."

"Now, my warning. Whoever claims to be your brother in the future: Don't EVER trust him. He's nothing like your brother in the past."

"... What are you hiding?" Leena is now suspicious.

"You will see what I mean in the future. But, heed my warning, or your comrades will die in vain."

"..." Kai doesn't take that very well. One wrong decision could cause her comrades to die? Now she has the responsibility to NOT make the wrong choice...

"Another warning. You don't have to tell secrets to the higher-ups, but you MUST tell them to your friends. Don't just hold the problems to yourself."

"I always tell mine to..."

"I'm not talking simple secrets. I'm talking about the same level as 'treason' here."

"..."

"One last thing before we come back: Tell your commander to be careful on the Empire. They're hiding quite a lot of stuffs that normal people haven't seen it yet."

"What do you mean by 'stuffs'?"

"That's as much as I can tell. That behemoth tank and the Valkyria were bad signs." Then Kuro stands up. "Let's head back before everyone leaves us behind."

* * *

After Squad 7 leaves, Squad E is heading back to the front line. Raz notices Kai being silent, too silent to be exact. So he asks: "Hey, Kai? What's gotten into you? Did that guy tell something bad to you?"

The sniper briefly turns to the direction where Gallia is, then answers: "It's about Kai."

"WHAT?" That makes everyone shout in surprise, with Claude asking immediately: "He knew about Kai, how? He just met us, right?"

"If what we have heard from Squad 7 was the truth, then he knew more than we thought. He said that Kai is dead."

Raz scratches his head apologetically: "Oh... our bad for bringing that up."

"It's okay, Kuro told me to tell you as well. However, he warned me about not trusting anyone who claims to be him. I don't understand why he said that."

Miles: "That's... maybe someone's planning to use you?"

"How many people know about my identity? And what could they gain from me if Kai is already dead?"

Miles: "Ah right... you have a good point."

"And he also talked about a Valkyria... maybe we're going to face one, so he has to warn it."

Riley: "Everyone in Squad 7 has confirmed Valkyrias exist. Should we tell that to the Federation?"

Claude thinks about the situation... then remembers: "Could it be..."

Raz asks: "What do you think, Claude?"

The commander answers: "The Ambassador has asked me about a special mission that would pull us back to Randgriz. It MIGHT be something related to the Valkyria, but I'm not very sure."

Raz: "Well... if I remember right, people has rumored about the current heiress of Gallia is a descendant of Valkyrur. Maybe we would be rewarded..."

Claude rejects the idea: "No, if that's the case then the higher-up would tell me, not an Ambassador. It has to be something more fishy. That's why I didn't accept it."

Kai then notices a hand-radio being attached to the hatch of the tank. She grabs it and asks: "Hey Claude, did you know this one's there?"

"Huh?" Kai gives him the radio. "I don't know... who could put it there?" He then presses the button...

"Took you long enough to find it." Kuro's voice suddenly comes out of it.

"Kuro?" Claude exclaims in shock, as everyone gets closer to hear the conversation. "Are you nearby? I thought you're going with Squad 7."

"Yes, I'm going with them. I have changed a few stuffs in it, so that I could call you even if we're half of planet far away. Anyway, forgot to tell you this, but maybe I will join with you all in the future, once we're done here. Don't know when."

Claude answers in surprise: "That's... a great news. But, about Gallia..."

"Hey, I'm not Gallian. I'm a mercenary, and my price is you being alive. Keep the radio so we could call later on." Then the call turns off.

Raz shouts: "Now that's what I'm waiting for! I'm so gonna get that armor from him!"

Kai's mood lightens up. "If he's heading here, I'm going to ask for more of Alicia's freshly-made bread!"

Riley: "I could use some helps from him for our upgrades as well!"

Claude smiles. "Guess that's one thing we can look after. Okay, let's keep ourselves alive so we can finish the Operation as fast as possible!"

* * *

**Chapter 9 end!**

**New weapons:**

**M14 with Red Dot Sight for Scouts**

**PSG1 for Snipers**

**SMAW for Lancers**

**Juggernaut Armor, Retractable Shield (make up), PKP Pecheneg with Red Dot Sight, SMAW**

**Yep, that's it for now. And thanks to you, GJO1088, I found a unique way to troll literally everyone. See you in the next chapters!**


	10. Chapter 10

**Chapter 10! Main story it goes!**

* * *

"Hey Kuro. Eleanor is calling for us." Uni walks into the R&D facility, where Kuro is working with Kreis on some weapons. Currently the former is making some Submachine Guns for the Engineers, considering they need more protections than just normal Rifles like the Scouts.

"Oh, the Captain? Let me finish here and then I will follow." Kuro acknowledges the call.

"Okay... you two really have sweet teeth, huh?" Uni then notices the bowl full of chocolate on the nearby table. "If any shop has to close because of lack of sweets, that's you two's fault."

"Maybe." That earns a chuckle from Kreis as Kuro just says it nonchalantly. The latter then drops the screwdriver down. "I think it's good for now. When I return, we will talk about the silencers. That would be useful for every class. I'm heading out now."

"Yeah, better not keep the captain waiting you two." Kreis says his goodbye towards the mercs, before heading to Leon and Isara, who's taking care of the tanks. "Hey, do you two need some helps?"

* * *

*Knock* *Knock* "It's Kuro and Uni. Can we come in?"

"The door's opened." Once the two enter the room and greet the others, meaning Welkin and Faldio, Eleanor says: "Sorry for calling you all on an off-duty day. Just an hour ago, I got a message that, Princess Cordelia has graciously extended banquet invitations to me and both of your squads. Including our non-official members as well."

Welkin is a bit surprised that he's invited to such an important event like that. Then he asks: "But, why us? I mean, Kuro and Uni, I can understand..."

"Squad 7 and Squad 1 have achieved many successes in this war, including the Vasel Bridge and recent ops. To Kuro and Uni, maybe they want to know more about the weapons they have provided to us." A quick pause. "The banquet will be held at the castle tomorrow."

"A royal party, huh? How long have I taken part in one?" Kuro asks himself in wonder.

"Every day, when you're with Charlotte." Uni jokingly says, which earns her a lightly knock on the head.

"That's not a party."

"Though, I'm not very good at this formal stuffs." Welkin expresses his concern.

"You're not planning to back away, are you Welkin?" Faldio asks in disbelief. "We're going to meet the princess directly here, and that's a rare chance we have to take anytime. According to the records, House Randgriz, the Archdukes of Gallia, are descended from the Valkyrur. That means Princess Cordelia is a Valkyria as well, and we can get an audience with her!" He is planning continue, but his smile falters when he sees Kuro's uninterested face. "Oh don't tell me that's wrong?"

"I haven't said anything." Kuro answers, nor denying neither agreeing with Faldio's suspicion.

Though, that's enough to make Faldio lose his smile. "All of that records..."

"That doesn't mean Cordelia is not a Royalty." At least that keeps Faldio's hopes up.

"Hey Kuro, how about you sign yourself up as the Royal Protector again?" Uni cheekily asks Kuro, which makes the man blush.

"Oh? You were a protector of Royalty once?" Eleanor asks in curiosity.

"Is. I'm still one, but most people wouldn't think that mainly."

"Hm, maybe you can say more in the banquet. Meanwhile, you're dismissed till then."

Getting out of the room, Kuro knocks on Uni's head again. "Do you have to say about that now?"

She just giggles. "I mean, you would say that eventually."

Faldio then gestures the two to follow him. "Can you come with me? I need to ask about something."

The two comply. And when the trio is in Faldio's room, the owner locks the door and gestures the two to sit on the chairs in his room. Once it's done, Faldio asks: "I want to talk about the skirmish in Barious recently. When everyone was asleep, I took a check on them... and I saw the same fire of Valkyria emitting from Alicia... is she one of them?"

Kuro sighs and confirms: "Yes, she is. However, she doesn't know about it herself."

Faldio: "Why are you keeping it in secret? I mean, with her power..."

"No." Kuro immediately stops Faldio. "I know what you're saying, but I'm not letting that happen. She's too young and naive to take the responsibilities of her power. Both Federation and Empire already knew about the Valkyrias, and they already used the ones having the bloodlines of Valkyrias to experiment for power. In fact, Alicia WAS one of their victims. Alicia was sent among with other children to foster orphanages, while Selvaria escaped and met Maximilian, and since then she was under his control. If that info was leaked out, Alicia will surely be forced to kill everyone, innocent be damned."

Faldio widens his eyes in surprise. He knows that Alicia might be one once he saw that, but he never knew about that story. "Then, about Alicia saying she was in the orphanage..."

"That's what she could remember. However, Selvaria and Alicia were once friends, so they would recognize each other for sure."

Faldio then remembers their encounter in Barious Temple. "No wonder that General sent that look to Alicia... What can we do about it?"

"I do plan to train her to use her power. However, I need to get rid of Damon first, since he could use her and try to gain fame for himself."

Faldio nods. "I understand. A power like that, everyone would want to get their hands on."

Uni then asks Kuro: "Should I tell her about that?"

"Hm... when you two are alone. Try to keep her calm after she hears that. Because she could be very... rebellious after that."

Uni: "Got it... say, are you going to the banquet with that look?" Uni then changes the subject.

Faldio also asks: "I remember now. Uni has another form, but if you're the same as her, do you have one Kuro?"

"I have three." Kuro confirms it. "However, two of them are for fighting only."

Faldio: "Wait... they're battle suits, right? I don't think Uni has a..."

Uni: "I have one with me."

Faldio: "Ah, okay then. Well, I have kept you on for a quite. You can leave now."

* * *

"Us two can go there?" Isara asks in surprise.

"This is great! I can't wait to see what's inside of Randgriz Castle!" Alicia says in excitement.

"But Uni, do you have a dress for that?" Cherry asks in curiosity. "If not, I could give you another tour in town!"

"Thanks, but I already have one. Considering I have to attend this kind of events a lot..."

"Say, isn't Kuro the same? And yet he seems to be very laid back of these events." Rosie asks.

"Two hundred years could give a person some bad tastes."

* * *

"A bouquet in Randgriz?" Maximilian asks.

"Yes, Your Highness. Nothing worth to address, if not for the fact that an Ambassador of Federation is also attending this one."

"Hm... that could mean troubles. Selvaria, Jaeger, you two infiltrate and if necessary, stop whatever their plans are."

"Roger!"

Upon getting out of the meeting room, Selvaria rubs her eyes in frustration, causing Jaeger to chuckle. "Not feeling well there?"

"I fell like this is one big trap and we're stepping right into it. And yet... that person's voice gave out such certainty that I don't know what to think..."

"Well, he knows his way for sure. Though, a banquet... have you ever attended one? I mean, not as Your Highness' protector?"

"...No."

"Then you're going to have to, now. *Chuckle* Hope you work with me peacefully, for once."

"I will consider..."

* * *

"Are you sure it's a good idea to contact them directly like that, Kuro?"

"I know what I'm doing, Uni. Don't worry."

* * *

Time skip

Location: Randgriz road

"Shouldn't they already be on the way now?" Alicia asks in wonder, as she looks around to try any presents of the mercenaries.

Welkin: "Knowing these two, they want to put up some surprises for everyone."

Faldio: "Yeah, their appearances, plus the bike they have. If nobody's shocked, then I don't know what else could surprise them."

Ramal then looks at the rear mirror, and sees the red light of unmistakable bike. "Well he has caught up to us now." And when the bike catches up and runs on the right side of the car, Ramal turns and speaks: "So you two... who are you?"

The group has also turned, and see that, instead of Kuro riding the bike, a man with white hair wearing red glasses, in a business suit, is the one controlling the bike. However, looking at the back seat, they see Black Sister in a black dress (it's in the first episode of the anime) sitting behind.

Black Sister is the one saying first: "Hello everyone. Sorry for keeping you waiting."

Faldio greets: "We're just wondering where you are... so that's Kuro?"

"Yep, that's me." The man answers, however, his voice is not Kuro's, instead it's a stranger with voice of women echoing in it. "This appearance suits better than my normal looking."

"Uh..." Everyone is a bit dumbfounded, not at the appearance but rather the voice.

Uni notices their faces and immediately understands: "That's why he rarely transforms. Though, at least it's not as terrifying as his other form."

Isara then asks: "Why don't you just change the outfit, instead of the whole appearance?"

Kuro: "Not really want my face to be recognized much. Also, in this form, call me Raiden."

Alicia narrows her eyes. "I hope it's not some plans of yours."

Uni: "Don't worry, that's normal Kuro for you. He doesn't like to show his face if he could help it."

Welkin smiles. "Well, that's his decision. Ah, we have arrived."

* * *

Location: Randgriz Castle

"Hm... there's not many I could ask, huh?" Irene sighs, as she just finishes asking the Ambassador of Federation, but ending up with nothing. "His way of talking to the reporters seems very off..." She then turns to look around, and finds a strange duo in the midst of people. However, the girl looks... familiar. "Let's try to ask them."

Closing up to the duo, as the man just took a glass of wine from a servant, Irene speaks up to catch the two's attention: "May I have a second with you two?"

The girl turns to her, as the reporter sees her green eyes... and the symbols in them "Ah, it's Irene. You are here too?"

Hearing the familiar voice makes her blink once, then exclaims: "Uni? Is that you? What's with this look of yours? You look beautiful."

The girl blushes up a bit. "Thanks for the compliment. I have to dress up a bit for this kind of event, don't I?"

"Then..." She turns to the man. "...You are Kuro... right?"

The man shrugs. "Who else? However, please call me Raiden when I'm like this."

"... What happened to your voice?"

Uni just pats the reporter's shoulder and says: "An after-effect, don't worry. Anyway, you want some questions from us, right?"

"Ah right." Deciding to go with that, Irene starts her questions: "So miss Uni, what do you feel about this banquet?"

"At the moment, we're enjoying it so far. It's been a while that we have joined a party like this."

"So, mister K...Raiden, what do you think about Federation and Gallia creating a relationship?"

"Hm... I would say: it depends on the speech today. A good relationship has to come from both sides."

"I see. Well, I heard about Gallia Militia having weapons more advanced than the Regular Army. Should you think those weapons should be given to the latter as well?"

"To be fair, it's necessary. However, the owner of those must have been asked for permission. If not, it's just stealing."

"And..."

"I think the owner wants the weapons to be used for defend, not to conquer."

"Thank you for the answers." Putting the note down, she then asks: "Okay, do you know the Ambassador of Federation is here?"

Raiden takes a small sip and answers: "Yeah. I saw him during a joint operation with the Rangers in the south."

"And what's your opinion about him?"

"He... well, let's put that aside, because a few 'guests' have arrived."

Raiden suddenly turns his eyes towards something else, and Irene follows it... "Wait, aren't those two..."

"We will talk later. For now, let's head into the main show."

* * *

"Honored ladies and gentlemen." Princess Cordelia Gi Randgriz starts her speech with her emotionless tone. "To be able to invite so many guests from the Federation and be together here fills me with endless joy. It may be short, but I want you all to enjoy the moment."

Everyone starts clapping. Though Raiden whispers to Irene sarcastically: "Yeah, 'endless joy' with that face. Nobody is going to believe that."

Uni scoffs hearing that: "You think? Kurome wasn't even that emotionless when she told us her plans."

"That's what I'm saying."

"Ambassador Townsend, would you please?" Upon hearing his name, the Ambassador walks towards to the left side of Princess. Kuro, however, gets closer to the duo of Imperial Generals.

Once in position, Townsend speaks: "Tonight, being able to be in the presence of Princess Cordelia, the heir to the Randgriz house and of Valkyrian descent, fills me with immeasurable joy. So, in celebration of prosperity of Gallia, cheers."

Everyone cheers, including Selvaria and Jaeger. However, the latter comments: "Shouldn't he be embarrassed as an ambassador to say such thing?"

"That's acting for you." The two turn to see Raiden standing next to them, focusing on the princess. Selvaria immediately recognizes the tone of speech. "Don't worry, I didn't call you here to fight."

"... You change that much in a month, huh?" Selvaria speaks back, threatening.

"Hm... Yeah, you look quite different. What's the occasion?"

Briefly transforming back to Kuro then to Raiden, he says: "Just for the fun. I called you here for a few things. First, my apology for giving you that scar, Selvaria. Didn't mean to hit you that hard."

Flinching once, Selvaria answers: "That's none of your business."

"I insist. It's very rude of me making you look bad."

"... I accept your apology."

"Thanks for your understanding. For the second reason: I need you here, so that in the future, you can tell Maximilian that the collaboration between the Federation and Gallia is not going to happen."

Jaeger chuckles. "For real? You went for all the troubles just for that?"

"Gallia's independence won't be broken, and I will guarantee it. Anyway, talk to you later." Raiden then joins his own group, as they start questioning the reason why he joined them.

"Interesting fella. Don't you think so, Selvaria?"

"Don't give him praises. After all, he's still our enemy."

"Yeah yeah."

...

After Welkin and Faldio get their Medals of Honor, the Minister continues: "To continue, I would like to introduce the mercenaries who has been helping Gallia's Militia during the time of war. Please come forward, Mister Kuro and Miss Uni."

Upon hearing the names, all guests turn their heads towards the duo, who starts heading to the princess after hearing their names being called, and start whispering to each other: "They don't have last name?" "But they don't look like Darcsens..." "The girl is too young to be a mercenary..." And so on.

However, that doesn't sway the duo. When they reach the stage, the two bow respectfully to the princess. Borg then continues: "Even though you two have no relations to this country, you have helped us a great deal in protecting our nation's safety. You are also the ones providing us the weapons we need to drive out our enemies, to keep our hometown in one piece. For that, Princess Cordelia will also award you with the Medal of Honor. May your help be remembered for eternity."

Despite not fully knowing the situation, everyone still claps to cheer for the two's succession. Princess Cordelia awards the two the Medals, and then gives out her thank: "My grateful thank to you two for protecting our country."

"It's for everyone's safety, Your Highness." Kuro bows again after receiving the reward. "We won't stop until the war is over."

And with that, the two backs away, returning to their group.

...

The second half of that banquet is the Second scene of chapter 9 in the game.

...

"Hello, mister Kuro." Turning away from his focus on the sky, Raiden looks at the person calling his name. "My name is Gilbert Gassenarl. The ones behind me..." The man gestures to the duo standing behind him. "Are my children, Baldren and Audrey. It's a pleasure to meet the person who has fought against a Valkyria and won."

The boy snorts, while the girl bows lightly, though Raiden could see how irritated the girl is. Though, he decides to not say it yet. "It's my pleasure as well."

Gilbert gives him a handshake before saying: "Your feats have been spread like a strong wind throughout the whole Gallia. Your coordination with the Militia makes you even more famous."

"Just doing my work... what's eating her?" Deciding to change the subject, Raiden asks.

"Oh, my apology. She didn't accept the fact you dared to fight against a Valkyria, let alone defeated her. So she was a bit... distressed."

"Ah, I see... Miss Audrey..." The girl looks at him. "Sorry about hurting your... what to say it... idol. However, if I didn't stop the Valkyria, then she would kill the people trying to protect their lands from being invaded. I hope you understand the circumstances back then."

"... So you're not out to hunt Valkyria?"

"Why would I do that? Valkyrias are just human. They have their own lives." Hearing that makes the girl relieve. "Though, I can't say the same to the Valkyrur, especially what they have done to the Darcsens."

That catches the trio's attention, and the senior asks: "Oh? You know something?"

"... I think letting Audrey watch it first would be better." And, with no one able to react, Raiden places his right hand on the girl's head. A second later, Raiden pulls his hand back, and Audrey's face turns horror. Kuro then turns back and walks away after saying: "Audrey, that's my gift to you. The truth."

Gilbert was about to call him back, before noticing Audrey fall on her knees, her tears starting to flow out of her eyes, causing the man to ask in worry: "Audrey, what's wrong? What happened?"

Audrey stutters: "The... Valkyrur... Darcsen Calamity..."

"Oh that?" Baldren dismisses it. "I thought you already acknowledged..."

"Caused by... The Valkyrur... Darcsen... killed and blamed..." She then hugs her face with her hands, not wanting to accept that truth. "No... all of my believes..."

"What's wrong, madam?" Eleanor notices the trio, she heads to them and asks in concern. "Did something happen?"

"You know about that mercenary, right? The male one?" Receiving a nod from Eleanor, Baldren continues: "That man just did something to her, and now she's sprouting nonsense about the Valkyrur!"

"Oh... so that's it." Eleanor nods, understandingly. "Kuro... he showed you the truth about the Valkyrur..."

Gilbert asks in surprise: "Wait, you mean he... somehow gave it to her, without any talking or... he just touched her head, and that's all!"

"I know your confusion, but let me explain." Leading the crying girl towards a chair so she could sit on, Eleanor starts: "Kuro... he did it to one of us before... he could look into any past and get any truths. He probably showed you the past of Barious, before the Valkyrur destroyed it and blamed the Darcsens."

Baldren snorts. "What nonsense! No human could do so."

"When did I ever say he's human?"

...

"Princess, are you feeling tired?" The Prime Minister asks the girl in concern. Seeing her reaction towards the question, Borg immediately says to the nearby guests: "Princess Cordelia will be exiting now." They acknowledge it, as the princess' led by a servant towards her personal room.

Once the princess is in her room, the Prime Minister says: "A court lady will be here to assist you with your return. I must return to the banquet now. Please take a short rest."

"Understood." When the door's closed, Cordelia takes out her dress and her hat, leaving the normal clothes on her, and sits on the chair, then lays her head on the table. "I'm tired."

"How about I help you with that?"

* * *

Ten minutes later

"Well, good night everyone." Eleanor has found group and talked with them for a while. "It's been good time here."

"WAIT A SECOND!" Damon suddenly runs to them, he's sweating a lot. "Princess Cordelia has been kidnapped!"

"WHAT?" Everyone exclaims in shock. "IT'S IMPOSSIBLE!"

Uni then notices Kuro (not Raiden) returning, so she immediately asks: "Hey Kuro! I thought you were going to talk to the Princess!"

"Uhm... I was, but... I didn't see her in her room..." Kuro answers back, however, the stuttering gives Uni a little suspicion.

However, Damon continues: "It was that damn Federation Ambassador! He's the spy all along!"

Eleanor the understands: "SO the Federation wants to 'take her under their protection, along with Gallia'. Typical."

Damon shouts again: "SO GET ON IT! Varrot, you have to take her back!"

"Roger that! Faldio, Welkin, gather your squads immediately."

"ROGER THAT!" Everyone starts taking actions. Uni also pulls Kuro, who is having a surprise expression on his face, out to the outside. Turning into Black Sister, the girl takes the other Deity to the air, making his eyes widen in another surprise. Then, Uni asks: "What's your plan now, Kuro?"

* * *

"My apology about the cramp of this car, Princess Cordelia. Once you're on the ship, it won't be a matter anymore." The Ambassador says his 'sorry' towards his kidnapped, who's sitting steadily in her chair. He then turns forward the driver. "Full speed ahead to the harbor!"

"Do you think this through, mister Townsend?" The princess speaks up, catching the Ambassador's attention. "Even if I'm under your 'protection', I'm still in control of Gallia. I can still order my nation to not let you do whatever you Federation want us to do."

The Ambassador chuckles. "Of course we're aware. That's why the Minister has already planned for that."

Cordelia gasps in surprise. "Borg? Impossible..."

"It is possible, madam. You're just a pawn in our game. You're only a figurehead of the nation, holding no power in your hands. Once you're not in Gallia ground, Borg will take over, and he will lead the nation however he wants."

Cordelia hangs her head down, then growls: "So this banquet is a set-up for you to dethrone me... Once I'm out of here, Borg will be in prison."

"I highly doubt that, princess." Townsend laughs. "We have left unnoticed. We're already far away..."

"Sir! We're being blocked!" Hearing that makes the Ambassador stop his words, as he looks out to see tanks and vehicles being stationed to block their way out.

"What the... how?" He then hears a rare giggle from the princess. "You planned it?"

"Not likely. But, that man, Kuro, probably noticed me being kidnapped already."

"Gr..." He grits his teeth in anger. There's no way they have been compromised that fast!

"Ambassador Townsend!" Eleanor shouts in the megaphone. "We have you surrounded! Come out with the princess immediately!" And with that, Edelweiss immediately stops behind the APC, stopping the vehicle from going anywhere, as the soldiers start closing their distance towards the APC.

"Sir..." The soldier asks in worry.

Townsend then pulls out a pistol and points it towards the princess' head. "You better listen, or you die."

...

The backdoor of the APC kicks open, and Townsend walks out with one hand wrapping Cordelia's arms, while the other points the gun in her head. "Nobody moves!"

"What the... everyone, hold your fire!" Welkin immediately tells the soldiers, not wanting to hurt the princess accidentally. "Ambassador Townsend, what's the meaning of this?"

"Ah, the son of the famous general. Now, you have two options: leave us go back to the Federation and we will guarantee her safety, or there will be no living princess." Townsend points the barrel closer to Cordelia's head to further prove his point.

"Damn it..." Welkin then whispers into his radio: "Uni, do you have a clear shot?"

"On who?" Uni answers, surprising the commander. "Kuro is asking me to **shoot the princess, not the ambassador."**

"What? Kuro, are you insane? We're trying to protect the princess here!" Welkin couldn't believe his ears. Why would a person like him order such scandalous idea?

"Well, mister Gunther. What's your decision? Whatever your plan is, I will win eventually." Townsend orders. "Then how about this? I'm counting to five, and if you do not give out an answer, the Valkyria blood will be spilled here. One..."

"Damn it! What can I do?"

"... Believe in my plan." Kuro talks back, making Uni's tremble her trigger finger.

"Two..."

"Kuro... this is a freaking real bullet! Do you have another plans? How about you just jump in already?"

"Three..."

"...Do it."

"Four..."

"DAMN IT!"

"Five!"

And with that, the bullet comes out of Uni's sniper rifle and heads straight towards its target, being Cordelia's head...

Only, to everyone's surprise, the princess suddenly yanks Townsend towards, making the bullet hit the Ambassador's shoulder. He screams in pain, but before he could shoot, the princess frees her right hand and back-hands Townsend in his face so hard that he unconsciously throws his gun to the air. Cordelia immediately grabs it and shoots the driver in the hand, causing him to drop his gun as well and scream while trying to cover the wound with his left hand.

Falling to the ground, Townsend tries to stand up, but Cordelia steps on his chest, completely stopping him from doing anything as she points the gun towards his face. The Ambassador tries to speak: "Y...Your Highness... we can talk..."

"Yeah, no way I'm letting that happen." The princess talks back, further surprising everyone by her way of talking. "The fact you tried to kill a leader of a nation right in front of her subjects would earn you a death sentence. Though..." Not moving the gun, the princess turns her head towards the descending Uni along with Kuro in her hands. "I have to leave the situation to **her**."

Uni, upon hearing what Cordelia just said, looks at the person who's in her hands, then recognizes the current situation, as she scowls the person in the middle of the scene: "For our sake, why the hell could you even think of that kind of idea **KURO?"**

"...KURO?" Now that makes everyone exclaim again in shock, as the 'princess' before them turns into Kuro, and vice versa to the other person.

"Of course, why else would I tell princess to tell you to shoot me right at the head?" Kuro just casually talks back, earning a facepalm from Uni. Then he asks the real princess: "So yeah, princess, what would you do?"

After thanking Uni for protecting her, Princess Cordelia walks towards and orders: "First, mister Kuro, please stand him straight up." Kuro just shrugs, then pulls the man up so the Ambassador faces the princess, as he puts the gun barrel right at his back. "Now, sir Townsend, I have heard everything in that APC. And I'm very disappointed. Normally I would do what Kuro said, however, since you're not Gallian, I will send you and your soldiers back to your land. And don't expect anymore attempts of making relationship from our countries." She then turns to the soldiers of Gallia. "Take him away please. And treat the driver's wound."

The soldiers, after snapping out of their shock, start to do their work. After a few minutes, only the princess, Uni, Kuro and some members of Squad 7 are left in the now quiet road.

And Uni punches Kuro right in the face. "YOU DAMN JERK! No wonder I felt something strange here! I took her off in the sky, and thanks to HIM I didn't drop her midway!"

Rubbing the bruise, Kuro replies: "Because I know you wouldn't do that." He then turns to Cordelia. "Sorry about the whole fiesta. It could have been much better."

"It's alright, mister Kuro." The princess bows to her savior. "If it's not for you, I might have been kidnapped for real."

"Still, that's one risky plan of yours." Welkin says. "I know you would be okay, but Princess could be caught in the fight."

"Well, Uni's there to protect her. Anyway, about Borg..."

"He will be removed immediately. Also Damon as well."

"Yep. Thanks for that."

"Wait, Damon is going to be removed?" Alicia asks, both in surprise and relief.

"Take quite a time, but I managed to find those documents..." Kuro pulls out a package of files. "That proofed that Borg did illegal stuffs under Cordelia's observation. Including having Damon promoted as well."

"And thanks to Kuro..." Cordelia continues. "I could pull myself out of the shell. From now on, I will directly lead the nation, not through anybody else."

"That's one good news I like to hear." Uni says in satisfaction. "Anyway... Kuro, how long did you talk to her so that she could follow your plans like that?"

"A day."

"... You just met her... right?" Faldio asks in confusion.

"Hey, told you I use power when I feel to. I just need to stop time and talk to her, so she could vent out all frustrations."

"I didn't think he could pull that out until I saw everyone stopped." Cordelia confesses. "But, it's a nice change of pace."

Uni sighs. "I should have known that you would pull that kind of thing out. I mean, you did that to the **Queen of Gallia**..."

That immediately earns a blush from Kuro, as he tries to hide his lower face with his right hand. Rosie asks in interest: "Oh? So you already knew about the Duchess of Gallia? Figure as much."

"Well, he's** her husband and her protector, so...**" And with that, Kuro covers her mouth with both hands, his face is in the last stage of red.

"...What? So that means..."

Before Cordelia could continue, Kuro immediately explains: "Wait a second, she's talking about a different Gallia, not your Gallia, Cordelia!"

"Different... come to think of it, his middle ring is made of sapphire... it might explain why he's taking quite an interest to our country, huh?" Eleanor then starts to see some reasons.

"It's not like that!"

"Isn't it, though?" Alicia decides to play along. "I mean, you two could be a couple..."

"NOPE NOPE NOPE! I don't want to hear it!" Now Kuro has released Uni, as he's flailing his hands in embarrassment and fright.

"You're in Gallia, so I think Charlotte could understand."

"IT'S NOT!" Kuro runs behind Edelweiss and tries to hide his red face, causing everyone to laugh.

"That aside..." Uni regains her breath first. "That's the real Kuro there. Very easily to be embarrassed."

Largo chuckles. "Now that's a good sight to watch."

Welkin follows the action, then says: "I think we should escort Princess Cordelia back before heading back to our place as well. It's late at night already."

* * *

"So, about Cordelia's suggestion..." Uni starts.

"NOPE! I already have Charlotte to deal with already! And I don't have the same feeling to her as Charlotte, okay?"

"How about as a father?"

"...*Blush* That doesn't mean I could stay here for long, okay?"

"Say that to Charlotte."

* * *

**Chapter 10 end!**

**A bit of fan-service in the end for anyone who has followed me from before.**

**I decided not to finish the conversation with the Gassenarls, because I have a plan for VC2.**

**And yeah, don't say about Townsend being OOC. It's Kuro controlling his mind to put him deeper into the hole.**

**That's it, for now. See you all in the next chapters!**


	11. Chapter 11

**Chapter 11! And here's the answer for the review, isolono:**

**I have PMed you, but I have to change the plan after checking the timeline. So yeah, Kuro IS STILL in the fight, but not really outstanding moves will be performed, from him.**

**Observers, remember? Uni does have that. Those things are like universal now for Gamindustrians.**

**The rest is in the PM.**

**With that out, let's get to the main story!**

* * *

Location: Gallia Militia Base, War room

"You're not going to join us in this operation?" Welkin asks in surprise, not expecting that Kuro is not helping.

"It's not that I don't want to help. However, there's a matter that would happen too fast that I must intervene. I will call for someone else to help... or not, if Uni thinks she could handle things for herself." The man answers, causing the girl to glare at him.

"I know you would call someone for sure."

"... Anyway, I better head out now. See you all in the future." Dodging that statement, Kuro stands up and walks out of the room, closes the door and, everyone knows without being able to look through the door, teleports to somewhere.

"That guy, giving us details then leaving." Uni sighs, knowing how Kuro 'works'. She then looks at Varrot and says: "Sorry about that."

"No need to apologize. Anyway, he has warned us about those 'huge mortar cannons' in Dillsburg. I will send a message about that to the front line. We will also immediately head there to support them as well. Any questions?"

"We also need to clear Squad 422's charges as well." Welkin says. "According to Kuro, they're labelled as rebels after the events in Barious Desert. We have met them before, and we could say they're not like what those reports gave us."

"I agree." The Captain nods. "Everyone, dismiss."

* * *

Time skip

Location: 10 kilometers away from Dillsburg Bridge. Gallia Militia Camp

"Now I'm surprised. No signs of Kuro, nor his 'calls for help'." Rosie comments, as everyone's resting after the long travel. "Uni, are you sure that..."

"Either that 'help' drops into our base literally, or that help is going to show up in the most unexpected way." Uni frowns, as she picks up Alicia's freshly baked bread and takes a bite. "But, I can't figure out who he's asking for help."

Largo: "Not sure, huh? Meaning there are multiple choices?"

"Afraid so. My first guess is his own son, but Kuro's children don't want to take a life unless it's a must, and I'm sure Kuro would do most of that. The others are the mercenaries he has befriended with, but none comes to my mind as the best to bring, considering we're in a gun war."

Welkin: "Most of them use swords?"

"Some use guns, but... they're not cheap to hire..." Uni says, remembering how much Kuro had to pay for those guys when he needed to use them for whatever ridiculous reasons he had back then.

Marina unconsciously turns to a direction... and with her sharp eyes, she sees that 'help' coming to them. "Uni, is that your friend?"

"Hm?" Having the bread in her mouth, the goddess turns to where Marina is looking at... and rubs her left temple. "... How did he manage to convince her?"

"One of the mercenaries?" Rosie asks, kind of expected a 'yes', but not really expected of the outfit and how young the 'help' is... then again, look is deceiving in this case.

"No... Give me a moment." Finishing up the bread, Uni stands up and starts waving her arms up to make the 'help' to notice. When the 'help' walks closer, Uni starts asking: "Nice to see you here. When did you get here?"

"It's good to see you as well, Uni." The girl giggles. "Kuro gave me the coordinate-fixed teleporter, so I just had to use it, and I ended up in front of the camp. I asked them for your name, and they just let me in."

Uni sighs. "I will try to get behind that..." She then turns to the rest of Squad 7. "Everyone, this is **K-Sha, a gun expert of Lastation**. You could say that her skills are on par with a general here." Note, her age is at least plus 10 compared to the original.

Welkin smiles. "Well I could say." He salutes to K-Sha and introduces himself: "Hello Miss K-Sha, my name is Welkin Gunther, the leader of Squad 7."

After the introduction being done, K-Sha bows to greet everyone. "It's nice to meet all of you." She then looks at Uni and says: "Noire sends her regards to you, and hopes that you would return unharmed."

Uni smiles nervously. "I'm sure she meant it to you. Remember last time you tried to kill me?"

The girl giggles again. "Oh don't worry. Let's keep it in the past, okay?"

"Yeah, save the bullets for the enemies." Rosie says, not wanting to hear the story. "Miss K-Sha, what kind of weapons you use?"

K-Sha pulls out the weapons, which are a pair of compact machine guns. "This is my main type of weapons. I will be helping the Shocktroopers, if Kuro said the name right."

Rosie: "Yeah, that's our role. One of them, anyway... but I'm curious. Why did he ask for a Shocktrooper, when we're dealing with mortar cannons? Shouldn't he just call someone similar to a Lancer?"

K-Sha answers: "That's what I thought as well. I even suggested B-Sha, but for some reasons he shrugged that off..."

"I don't think she could stand against blood, though." Uni says. "Remember the time you overthrew us? She wasn't able to face against the monsters without that mask."

"... You're right." K-Sha remembers that detail. "Although, she could just stand out of the range and shoot based on the others' coordinate calls, right?"

"Strange, indeed." Welkin now sees why the girls are questioning Kuro's choice of help. "However, I think this is a serious war, and Kuro wouldn't want to put someone who's inexperienced of it to join in."

"... I was about to complain about her being inexperienced..." Largo chuckles. "But, looking at Uni and Kuro, I have to pull it back, considering they have pulled out stupid stunts before."

Uni shrugs. "And that can't even top what he has done before. Anyway, we appreciate all the help. K-Sha, I'm currently working with the Snipers, so you can work with Rosie on the Shocktroopers."

With that, Rosie raises her hand forward to greet the Lastation gunslinger. "Welcome to the club, K-Sha."

* * *

Time skip

"OKAY GUYS! ANY IDEAS?" Rosie shouts, after she peaks out and shoots a few shots then ducks behind cover, which is a dense bush.

"With Edelweiss stuck, we can't push forward!" Uni shouts after knocking down a Sniper from the watchtower of Imperial Camp. "We have literally no covers between us and them!" She then calls out for the Gunslinger: "Any lucks so far, K-Sha?"

"Sorry Uni, I can't push no further." The girl calls back, as she hides behind what remains of a fallen Gallia tank while shooting anyone trying to bypass her. "Can't we have anything that could cover their vision?"

"We lost that sooner than we thought." Welkin replies. He then asks the tank driver: "Is the tank out of the position yet?"

"Not at the moment." Isara replies. "Largo, can you try to blast those mortar cannons with Javelin?"

"I tried! But that only caused a dense to the surface!" The Lancer shouts back, clearly pissed off that the weapon didn't manage to reach the core of the weapons. "And it could be shot down at any moments!"

"This is not good!" Uni says, as she takes down two more Scouts. "Even though we could stop them from locating our position, they could still shoot blankly at the forest and eventually get us in no time."

"Wait, Uni." K-Sha calls. "I saw a flick of light from the mountain. Can you check what it is?"

"Hm? Marina, cover the front line a bit." After hearing confirmation from the other Sniper leader, she aims her gun at said location... and starts seeing those light flicks, and the one doing so, being a guy with blond hair, using a strange kind of binocular who's focusing on the enemy's location while flashing the light like some kinds of codes... "Wait, isn't that Morse Code..." Once the light stops a bit, she aims back at where the mortar cannons are and compares the coordinates with the codes that guy just sent. "...Welkin!"

"What?" Welkin shouts back, not wanting to turn his attentions away.

"Can our tank shoot towards those cannons?"

"We tried before, remember?"

"How about now?"

"What would make..." He pauses a bit, as he turns to Edelweiss... as its main cannon is pointing towards the sky... "Isara! Does the main cannon still work?"

"Still ready!" Isara replies.

Uni pats Marina's shoulder to inform her to move. After the duo jumps down, the other snipers have also changed their positions. Uni moves towards the tank and calls Isara: "We have a pointer from the mountain! A 422 one if I checked his uniform right!"

"Wait, 422 is here?" Edy shouts, before ducking to dodge a stray bullet. "Could it be..."

"Who else could find them?"

* * *

Flashback

Location: Aslone, other side of mountain

"The fog is clear." Number 7, Kurt Irving, says, as his squad is going over a hill. "And the sun has showed up..."

Number 21, Felix Cowley, stretches his arms up before saying: "We finally have some refreshes, and we don't have to be afraid of..."

Any words he's about to say get cut off, as the whole squad suddenly hears gun sounds coming from downhill. Kurt immediately orders: "Everyone, follow me!"

With their weapons ready, they start heading where the gun sounds are from. However, the deeper the forest they go in, the lesser the gun sounds can be heard. Then, a few moments later, no more can be heard. On high alert, the squad walks slowly forward... and they start finding corpses of the Imperial Soldiers, either being shot to the head or being slashed in half. Some even got decapitated as well.

"W...What's going on here?" Number 1, Imca, asks the commander, uncertain of what she's seeing. "I'm expecting some stabbing wounds, but straight up getting cut down? Shin, have you ever managed to do something like this?"

"If the sword is sharp enough, yes." Number 58, Shin Hyuga, answers. "But, we normally aim for the arms or legs. A perfect vertical cut from the head, we only do it for a show or so, since it's too risky."

"Look at these bullet wounds." Number 16, Ada Ansorge, flips a body over and observes the wounds. "They look as if they're fired with pistols, but the shots went through the bodies, and yet there's no evidence that the bullets were shot at point-blank."

"Now that's disturbing." Kurt replies. "Who could have..."

"Hey guys! Sorry for the mess!" Someone suddenly shouts up, causing everyone to point their guns at the direction. The rifle of Number 45, Serge Liebert, gets triggered, and a bullet heads right towards the mysterious person, causing said person to swing his sword up to deflect, avoiding getting shot to the head. "Holy quick trigger! That nearly got me!"

Now that sends everyone over the edge, as they grab on their weapons tighter. Their distance to the person is just about ten meters, and the guy is also definitely not expecting the sudden bullet, but to deflect that in an instant would indicate him to be a danger to them.

"Woah now, I'm friendly." After sheathing the sword, the person throws his arms up, showing the sign of surrendering. "No need to point the weapons towards me like that."

"... Walk closer, slowly." Kurt commands, not wanting any risks. The person complies and starts doing so. The moment the person's in the light, Kurt immediately can say the person being a complete stranger. However... that kind of strange did happen to be told to them from a certain squad. "Wait a second... you are Kuro, right? Why are you in here?"

"Well thanks for recognizing me. Our squad is kinda stuck at Dillsburg, as we're trying to deal with the mortar cannons. A little bird then told me that you're nearby, so I came here to seek for your help."

'A little bird? Someone in our squad sent him our location?' Kurt temporarily looks back at his squad and tries to think of anyone possible, but ends up with none. So he turns back to Kuro and asks: "Okay then... why didn't you help them, like when in Kloden Wildwood?"

"Against mortar cannons, I have no equipment to protect the whole squad." Kuro simply replies. "Anyway, can we talk in a better place? It's starting to get hot in this forest."

...

"Start speaking." Imca orders, completely ignoring the fact that Kurt is actually in command.

"Don't speak like that, Ace." Kurt says, then turns to Kuro. "Sorry about her attitude. She tends to not speak friendly towards strangers."

"I understand." Kuro nods. He then points towards the local map. "Anyway..."

"Hold on." Felix interrupts. "Who had said that we're going to help?" That earns subtle nods from everyone. He then turns to Kurt. "Seven, we're dead if we meet either side. We can't just waltz in there and show our faces to either army!"

"Uh... did I miss some..." He plans to ask Number 13, Riela Marcellis, then remembers and smacks his face with his right hand. "Sorry about that. I forgot you're being labelled as rebels before we threw Borg into prison."

"Yeah, it's not like everyone kn..." Felix says, then stops himself after registers what Kuro just said. "What was that? Borg? As in, Maurits von Borg the Prime Minister?"

"Yeah... you haven't checked any newspaper, have you?" Kuro says, 'surprised' that the news hasn't reached them.

"Hey young man, we're on the run. We didn't have any 'fancy times' to stop and update stuffs." Number 3, Gloria Durrell, says, shaking her head at how 'airhead' this guy is.

"... You have a point. Anyway, we have found the files about your 'rebels', and I have to say that, the guys in squad 7 and whoever that are sensible enough are quite pissed at how some of the higher-ups work. So we're also on the way to find you and help you getting off those charges. And Borg was sent to prison due to his attempt of trying to get Cordelia kidnapped and brought to the Federation land. Also Damon is being the same, to whoever that's despite of him."

"Good." Imca states blankly.

"But... I don't think you could prove us being innocent." Kurt says, seeing the situation too unreal to be true.

"Kinda easy, considering we have told Cordelia and she agreed to do so, if you're willing to help Gallia again." Kuro says.

"...How... did you... do that?" Riela asks in surprise.

"Just some stuffs you can find in the news once you get back to safety. So uh, can you help now?"

"Of course." Kurt says, gaining glares from the others. "What? The fact Kuro could prove us innocent, and we're fighting for the innocents, this is the perfect chance for us to clean our names."

A silence moment... and Felix sighs. "We can't really change your mind, can we? Alright, we're in." And with that, everyone else agrees.

"Thanks." Kuro says, then points to the map. "I can guide you. There's a route that we can avoid the Imperial units..."

"Not necessary." Earning a 'huh?' from Kuro, Kurt points his finger towards a different location. "We're using the mountains."

"Wait a second!" Number 63, Carisa Contzen, shouts disapprovingly. "The ways on the mountains are impossible for a tank to cross!"

"I did check before." Kurt explains as he points on the map. "If we're careful, we could get within the one-meter narrow pass."

"... Guess I have to help you in that." Everyone turns to Kuro as he says. "I could create a temporary way just next to the pass so the vehicles would have no troubles getting in."

"You can do something like that?" Riela asks in surprise, not thinking such things could be possible.

"Then I guess it's settled." Kurt nods at Kuro's offer. "So do you..."

"Mind I interrupt?" Kuro speaks up. "But, we saw some troops with black outfits in Imperial base. Do you know who they could be? Elite Troopers or such?"

"...The Calamity Raven?" Kurt asks in surprise.

"I don't know. But, that name kinda fits, somehow." Kuro 'ponders'.

"Then we should move on now. Everyone, get ready."

* * *

Time skip

Location: Dillsburg, on a steady surface on the mountain

"How... did... that... work?" Carisa expresses her utter disbelief at what they just achieved. Or more like, how Kuro CREATED A PATHWAY BY USING UNUSED ROCKS IN THE MOUNTAIN AS THE NEW PATH!

"I just could. Anyway..." He's interrupted as a mortar shoots into the sky and lands into the forest where the Gallia troop is in. "Okay, that's not good. Can we run faster now?"

"Of course." Kurt nods. "Everyone, pick up the pace!"

...

"Okay, too quite..." Kurt says, seeing a 'free road' ahead.

"You think those black guys are planning something? Because the Imperial units would have placed something here to guard the place." Kuro comments.

"Could be... could be not."

"Okay then." Holding the katana in his left hand, Kuro starts running ahead. "I'm going to be a decoy. Try to see if..."

"Don't move!" Kurt orders, stopping Kuro in track. "It seems to be a landmine just next to you."

"Oh?" Kuro looks down at the possible place, then sighs. "Okay, Kurt. You told your squad to slowly head back."

"What about you?" Kurt asks, uncertain of what Kuro is planning.

"It's okay, I will be fine." Kurt reluctantly nods and orders his squad to back off. Once they're clear, Kuro kneels down and moves the dirt a bit, revealing the landmine. "Dia loi, dua nhau a?" He then stands up and...

* * *

At the same time

Location: Imperial Barricade

"So you truly came, Kurt." Gusurg says to himself as he looks through the binocular and sees his former leader... and someone he doesn't recognize. "Hm... doesn't look like a uniform of Nameless..." He then sees Kurt slowly backs away, but the other kneels down and starts checking the ground. "So they found out the landmines." Then, the person stands up and, to both sides' surprise, stomps on the landmine with his right foot, causing the thing to explode, creating a blast and dirt flying up, covering the man in the explosion. Gusurg raises his eyebrows in surprise. "What the? Did that person just... suicide?"

"Um... sir? May I have a word?" A Calamity Raven Scout suddenly speaks up. "Should we, uh, retreat?"

"What the hell are you talking about?" A Lancer asks back in surprise, temporarily gaining everyone's attention. "We have them right there!"

"I'm not scared of the Nameless." The Scout explains. "But... the man who triggered the landmine... didn't he remind you of someone?"

"Who are you talking about?" Gusurg asks in confusion.

"Well, there is a rumor about a man who managed to win against the Valkyria of Prince Maximilian..." The Scout starts explaining, then he turns back to the explosion, and shouts: "DUCK!"

Unconsciously, everyone follows, and thankfully they do, because a second later, a barrage of machine gun bullets start flying over them. A Shocktrooper asks the Scout: "What did you just see?"

"I saw an armor person who pointed a heavy machine gun right towards us! Did that give you enough warning?" The Scout shouts back.

"That's a clear sign alright." Gusurg accepts the answer. He then peaks out a bit to see the man in the armor slowly walking towards them, with the machine gun firing at them nonstop. "What kind of help has Kurt found this time?"

* * *

All Squad 422's members are hanging their mouths in shock, as the armor soldier just walks straight towards the enemies, ignoring the landmines exploding right under his feet while firing his seem-to-be-unlimited-bullet machine gun. Kurt heard the stories of Kuro's absurd feats from Welkin, but to see it right before his eyes...

"Oi! I can't deal with them alone!" Kuro's voice shouts in Kurt's radio. "Mind moving forwards please?"

Snapping out of shock, Kurt orders his squad: "Everyone! Start covering fire for Kuro! Carisa, drive the tank towards and detonate the landmines!"

* * *

Location: In the forest, Gallia Troops

Everyone then starts seeing explosions from afar, with sounds of constant firing. Uni immediately taps into her radio and calls for specific person: "KURO! You found 422?"

"Yes, and we're creating some distractions here! Start moving towards!"

"Um, kind of impossible here! Edelweiss is still stuck! But we could shoot the mortar cannons from here!"

"Hm... did you see Number 11's flash?"

"Number... on the top of the mountain? Yes." She was planning to ask why he called the number instead of the name, but due to the problem ahead, she shoves the question aside.

"Try to deal with the mortar cannons. We will try to create as much troubles as possible."

"Roger!" Turning off the radio, Uni turns to Isara and asks: "You got it?"

"I saw him!" Using the binocular, Isara finds the guy on the mountain. "Welkin, can you aim the cannon with the coordinates?"

"I got it!" Welkin shouts from inside Edelweiss, as the main cannon starts moving to fit with Isara's introduction.

"Okay... K-Sha, we're heading out! Activate your Gold Third Form!" With that, Uni turns into Black Sister and starts flying out of the forest and heads towards the mortar cannons.

"I heard it!" With her other personality switched, K-Sha activates her gadgets in Gold Third Form and rushes into the clear battlefield. Thanks to her enhanced vision in this form, she could easily predict where the bullets could fly, so she dodges the Imperial Infantry and Tanks' shooting with no problems. Firing her submachine guns to kill the Infantry, she stops a bit and pulls out a rocket launcher and blasts an Imperial Tank with one shot direct to the main cannon.

With Black Sister, she flies up high to the sky and aims her gun down at the back of the barricade, shooting down all soldiers caught in her sight. Charging energy in her weapon, she uses EX Multi Buster and aims it right at the Ragnite cores of the tanks, taking them down in one shot. Some Snipers notice her and try to take her down, but she constantly moves in the air so they have no chance to shoot, and in the end, they are shot down with the watchtower they're in with an accurate XMB: Empress.

With Squad 422 and Kuro, they have breached into the Imperial parameter, though, while the former is running in the trenches, the latter just walks on the surface to draw most of the attentions to him. Dropping his machine gun which disappears immediately, he raises the shield in his left arm up and pulls the sword with his right hand to go for the melee fights. During that, he taps into the Imperial's radio and receives a dial for another mortar shot, so he calls through his earpiece: "Uni, aim at the left cannon! I'm sending you the signal!"

"Alright!" Black Sister starts focusing on the left cannon, while hearing the countdown to calculate her shot. The moment the shell is about to go out, she shoots right at it, making it detonate right inside the barrel, making the whole artillery to blow up as well.

Meanwhile, K-Sha also reaches Kuro's location and helps him fending off the soldiers. And then, tank shells start dropping down to the second artillery, and eventually manage to get a clear hit. "Two down." K-Sha flatly comments.

"Don't celebrate too soon. The third one is going out soon. Three, lead your group to the third warehouse, the last mortar cannon is there." Kuro calls to 422 after stabbing a Scout right at the head.

"Got it! Ace, Three and Twenty-Three, you three start rushing towards that warehouse! We will cover!"

"Okay!" The three nod and start rushing out, while the rest of 422 fire their weapons out. However, reaching halfway, the trio faces the reinforcement of Imperial Units, so they have to hide behind a stack of boxes. One bullet hits Leila Peron's shoulder, making her drop the satchel charge in the clear view. Thankfully, Kuro and K-Sha arrive in time and the former covers for the latter to receive the item before they also hide behind a stack of barrels. However, that gives the Imperial enough time to deploy three tanks to stop their tracks, and the third artillery starts coming out of the warehouse.

"Any ideas?" Kuro shouts out, before ducking further into the cover to avoid getting shot to the head.

"You have anything dealing with those tanks?" Imca asks, while firing out her gun to take out some soldiers.

"I have one laser shot to deal with one tank." K-Sha answers.

"I have one anti-tank shot right here." Gloria replies.

"Uni, you got a moment?" Kuro calls in his ally from above.

"Which one do you want me to deal with?" Black Sister hears the call and aims towards the tanks.

Kuro peaks out again to look, before calling the shot: "Okay, Three, you take the left. Uni, you take the right, and K-Sha will blast the middle. Agree?"

The plan executes flawlessly.

Kuro throws the satchel charge to Imca while raising up his shield. "We're covering you. Let's go!"

With the shield in front, he manages to block most of the bullets coming to the group. K-Sha follows him closely while taking down the Infantry with her grenades and machine guns. The moment he reaches the sand barricade, Kuro retracts the shield and calls out both of his swords and goes in for the close-range slaughter.

With that distraction, Leila and Imca run forward and kill any soldiers aiming their guns at them with the help of Black Sister from above. Gloria follows quickly behind and shoots a normal Lancer shell towards a core of one tank, making it explode on impact. Once they're close enough, Gloria hooks the satchel charge right on the last shell and aims the lance right at the artillery and shoots. With that, everyone retreats as the shell impacts and explodes, detonating the charge as well, blowing up the artillery in the process.

Pulling out the helmet, Kuro looks at the explosion and the retreating Imperial Units, and says to himself: "Well, one more down." Then he turns to K-Sha, who has turned back to normal. "You have any fun?"

"It's not like fighting monsters, Kuro." K-Sha frowns at him. She then turns to Gloria and asks: "Are you unharmed?"

"Thanks to you, we are." Gloria replies. "Although, some of our guys sure need some treatments from stray shots."

"Well that's easy enough. Let's return to your group first before getting back to Squad 7, shall we?" He then calls in his earpiece: "They're all retreating?"

Uni replies: "Yeah, and the Regular Army starts coming out now."

"...Well that's them for us. Alright, let's go back. Our job is done here."

* * *

Far away from battlefield

"So Dillsburg has fallen." Dahau says, earning nod of Zig.

"I knew it. That Munchhausen was really incompetent." Lydia says, completely expected the result.

"At least, thanks to you, we managed to get out unharmed." Gusurg says, gaining others' attention. "However, we now have another problem." Pulling out a newspaper, he gives it to Dahau, and Lydia leans at it to read. "Apparently, that stranger is a huge helper of Gallia, who's producing more effective weapons for them. And there's a record that he managed bested Selvaria in a one-vs-one match in Barious."

"Oh really?" Lydia asks in surprise. She then remembers: "Right, we saw a scar on her back a few days ago!"

"An interesting fella..." Dahau comments. "Well, it doesn't matter much. Let us return to our own fight."

* * *

Time skip

Location: Gallia Camp

"They are WHAT?" After returning with Squad 7, Kurt was asked to go and talk with Varrot, so he, Imca and Riela went to where the captain was. Varrot explained the current situation to them, and: first, they're thankful that their actions were justified, and at the same time, surprised at what they heard about the mercenaries.

"I'm not joking." Varrot replies. "You can read reports about what they have done during this time. There are no exaggerations in them, and that's us trying to mitigate them to an acceptable level."

"Those girls... and that man... are Deities?" Riela asks again, not believing her ears.

"Well that could explain how Kuro built those roads before." Kurt says, remembering the 'rock road'. "And they claimed to protect Gallia's independence... Can we trust those words?"

"It's more than that. They would go and protect anyone who is deemed 'worthy to live' to them. And that even included General Selvaria Bles as well."

"That damn woman?" Imca outbursts. "Didn't he know what she has done?"

"Yes. We have asked the same question. and he replied with: 'Would you be the same if you're her?' He knew what happened, and he knew more about Selvaria than us. He must have found something wrong in Imperial, and he's trying to weaken them with minimum fighting from them." Varrot replies.

"And prey tell, how did he do that?" Kurt asks, starting to lose some trust in Kuro.

"He actually has gained one of Maximilian's General's subtle help, by him ordering his soldiers to not operate any attacks on us. In exchange for the General's home country's independence."

"..." That makes the trio fall in silence.

"Well, I think it's best to ask them directly." Varrot speaks up. "You're dismissed."

...

Later

Location: A random table

"One more operation?" Uni asks K-Sha.

"Yeah. Kuro said that we're going to a labor mine, right? And save people there?"

"... Yeah, that's a better reason to call you."

"Excuse me?" The two look at Riela and Imca, as the former asks. "Do you have a moment? We want to talk a bit."

"Sure." After the two sit down, Uni asks: "I'm Uni, and this is K-Sha. May we ask for your name?"

"Well... you can call me Thirteen, and her Ace or One." Riela doesn't want to reveal their real names yet. "Varrot told us that you're... goddesses? And Kuro being a God? Is that true?"

"Eh, that's true in their cases, not me." K-Sha replies. "I'm just a normal human..."

"Who could call you one after seeing you like that, K-Sha?" Uni jokingly says, earning a playful punch to the shoulder. "So yeah, we are except K-Sha. You're surprised, right?"

"We are." Riela smiles nervously. "So, should we address you as 'Lady' or so..."

"Don't worry. Just call us normally, we're not into that stuff."

"Is that so..." Imca says. "Might I ask if you know Selvaria personally?"

"Eh, no. Why?"

"We heard from Varrot that Kuro is planning to spare her life..."

"That..." Uni's smile drops. "Only Kuro knows exactly what happened to the General. Though, he did tell me that the General is misguided."

"Misguided? She wiped out villages in cold-blooded!" Imca shouts. "And you called that misguided?"

"Everyone under Kuro's protection was killed in one day." Uni's dead tone shuts her up. "And yet, when he killed the person responsible to that, after hearing the truth, he has forgiven her instantly. Kuro knew Selvaria must have been the same, and that's why he's trying to pull her out of the Imperial's control."

"..." That drops Imca in silence, not knowing how to continue.

"But, surely there would be different, right?" Riela tries to ask more.

"Kuro's situation was even worse than now. And he could remember it even after hundreds of years."

"..."

"..."

"Um, how about we change the subject?" K-Sha breaks the silence. "So your team now is justified?"

"...Yeah. Thanks to you all." Riela is the first one to reply.

"Oh, right." Imca then remembers a strange part with Kuro's talk. "He said that someone found us nearby..."

"Yeah no, that's him already knowing your moves."

"Huh?"

"*Sigh* That's Kuro for you. You might learn more in the future, or ask Squad 7's memebers for confirmation. Oh and..." Uni then focuses on Imca. "Can I see our weapon design?"

"Well, I left it at our camp..." And with that, Uni stands up and pulls Imca to said camp. "Wait, wait! I can walk on my own!"

With that, K-Sha and Riela are left behind. The former giggles. "Here she goes with the unique weapons." The Gunslinger then asks Riela: "Thirteen... you are a Valkyria, right?"

That question shocks Riela. "H...How did you..."

"Alicia is one as well." That surprises the Scout. "However, Kuro said that she didn't know herself, yet. And don't worry, we won't say anything, but... eventually everyone will know."

"...Yes, I am." Seeing that she couldn't hide, Riela answers. "And... how did people find out that Kuro and Uni..."

"They just told them." Giggling at Riela's stupefied face, K-Sha continues: "That's just Kuro for you... also, we're going to Fouzen next to save people there. Are you going to come?"

"Of course! But..."

"But?"

"There is another squad out there, Calamity Raven, who tried to save the Darcsens and promise them a nation and independence." Riela says, expecting to fight against them again.

"Um... I thought it's a good thing?" K-Sha asks, not understanding the situation.

"By pure violence."

"...Okay, that's bad. If it's Kuro, he would just try to make peace first."

"Exactly."

"..."

"..."

"So, you and Ace have some interests in your commander?" K-Sha suddenly changes the subject that catches Riela off guard.

"WWWWHAT ARE YOU TALKING ABOUT?"

"I saw you and Ace with him like every time... kinda like Isara and Alicia with Welkin..."

"WE DON'T HAVE ANYTHING! WE'RE JUST COMRADES!" Riela's face is red in embarrassment, not wanting to say anything more about it.

"*Giggle* I'm just joking. But, at least the mood is lightened up now, right?"

"... *Pout* It's not so nice to do that."

"*Giggle again* I know."

* * *

**Chapter 11 end!**

**My friend and I have some discussions on the events of Fouzen and Dillsburg, about when it happened first since they didn't have specific dates. So, I decided this one will be the sooner, and Fouzen the later.**

**I picked K-Sha because of the reason IN the story. If you have questions about it, re-read the story please.**

**Imca's ending made me chuckle in its cuteness. Riela's ending... Gloria, why XD. And Imca's smile... actually unsettles me, that's one Yandere sign right there XD.**

**That's all for me to say. See you all in Fouzen!**


	12. Chapter 12

**Chapter 12 is just a little transmission before the Militia heads to Fouzen and rescue the Darcsens being held there. Read to your heart's content!**

* * *

Location: Dillsburg

"A weapon test, right now?" Welkin asks in surprise.

"Yeah. I got a request from a friend, who wanted to demonstrate their weapons. Though, I haven't read the whole thing, and I'm pretty sure it will attract everything within a kilometer parameter." Kuro explains, as he sets the table and the mini practice field on the battlefield. "And I need to contact them directly to get the weapon on the test."

"But still..." Welkin watches as Kuro grabs what's left of the mortar cannons and places it to the field. "Couldn't we just go back to our main base and then you can..."

"Well, considering who I'm going to talk to... I think now is a better time." Putting the communicator device on the table, Kuro starts tapping on it to get the call...

"You are out here, huh?" Kuro and Welkin look back to see Kurt walking towards them. "Your squad mates told me that you're going to test some weapons, right?"

Welkin scratches his head and answers: "Well, it's more like Kuro taking a quest from someone..."

"Yep, that's me." Kuro turns back to the device. "You're welcome to watch, but try to keep the number of questions in minimum, please."

Kurt whispers to Welkin: "He seems to be... less than what people has spoken about him."

Welkin asks back: "At which point?"

"Less serious... less menacing..." Kurt recalls what he has read in the newspaper. "And he saved the princess by... disguising as herself?"

"The newspaper is not wrong, though." Welkin answers. "He's quite serious on the battlefield, but very childish if things don't need him to be the former. Kinda expected from someone who has married though."

"I see... married?" Now that's an interesting detail. "He looks younger than you... Though, I supposed he has to be older, if he's a Deity of sort..."

"Yeah, I can sympathize." Welkin totally understands how Kurt feels now.

After a few moments, the communicator receives the call, and a holographic screen pops up in the air. Though, it's static for a few seconds before the call has gotten through.

"Greeting, Leader of Research Land." The caller is a humanoid figure, standing in what it seems to be a workshop of sort. Both commanders immediately deduce the person to not be human at all, considering he doesn't have a mouth or a nose, and his eyes are shining up with blue light. He seems to wear some kind of light armor, with robotic equipment on them. Every word of his echoes through the air.

Kuro greets back: "Greeting Phase-smith. Sorry for not answering the calls from before. But now I could answer them, and I will make sure to fulfill the quest you ask."

The person replies: "You don't have to apologize. We all have our own works to do." He then notices the commanders behind Kuro. "May I ask for the people's identities behind you?"

"Oh?" Kuro steps aside and introduces: "The one in blue uniform is Welkin Gunther, the commander of Squad 7 of Gallia Militia. The other is Number Seven, the commander of Squad 422 which is a special force of Gallia."

The two commanders salute, as the Phase-smith raises his right arm over his chest, with the palm above where the heart is supposed to be. "Greeting, Terran Commanders. My name is Harox, the Head Phase-smith of Cryo-Tech Protoss, stationed on Sair."

'Where is that?' Both Kurt and Welkin ask themselves, but dare not to speak out loud.

"Hierarch Ionis, do you have a word for our guests here?" Harox turns back and asks a person who's on the workbench fixing something up. Seeing the person waving his hand declining, Harox returns: "He's currently focusing on the work, so he can't greet you for now."

Kuro nods. "I could relate. Anyway, what is the weapon you want me to test?"

Horax opens up a screen behind him, and a blueprint of a small structure appears. "If our knowledge is right, you are aware of our automated defenses, and the most used structure is the Photon Cannon."

"I do. Though that thing is a bit weak against many targets." Kuro nods, knowing what the thing is.

"Um..." The Deity turns to look at Welkin, who raises his right hand up for questioning. "Can you explain what that is?"

"Well... think of it as a turret, but it runs by itself. And the fire rate is just faster than a Lancer." That's the best description he could pull out.

"That's correct." Horax continues. "However, it has a very high damage against armored vehicles." A simulator appears, as everyone watches a Photon Cannon firing against a Siege Tank, and after two shots, the tank is down. "It's a very value defense unit early in the fight."

"Yes, I can see that... I hope that you're not planning to ask me to build some here? Because I'm sure as hell that I don't have any materials necessary." Kuro says, not wanting to do it in the first place, because he would have to clean up after that.

"Oh no no. Because of the power, we're testing to see if we could give it to infantry. In fact, I will send you the prototype immediately." Harox says as he presses some buttons on his device...

Something starts to materialize next to Kuro, which nearly makes two commanders jump back in surprise. Once it's over, Kuro grabs and examines it: The main parts of the gun reminds him of a Psionic Blade, except there's a Phase Disruptor core being its main power on the top, and a handle placing underneath the palm location. When Kuro wears it on his right arm and grabs the handle, the core starts up and empowers the weapon. "Hm... a bit traditional, but I can accept that." By the way, Isolono, please give me a Protoss-like description next time.

"Since it's a prototype, we decided to adjust the blueprint into the Psionic Blade as a quick work. After confirming the battlefield data, we will think of the appearance later." Harox explains

"Yeah, I understand." Kuro nods, and points the weapon towards the empty shell of a mortar cannon. He aims at the thickest plate and grips the handle harder. The barrel starts charging up, and Kurt and Welkin immediately step back in case something bad could happen. A second later the blast comes out of the barrel and hits the target, creating an explosion on impact, effects being triple as a Lance blast. However, at the moment the shot's out, the weapon jerks Kuro's arm back, nearly dislocating his shoulder. "That... back-blast... what the heck?"

"Sorry for not warning you..." Harox apologizes. "Our calculations indicated that it has a huge recoil after each fire."

"It could blast down a Terran Siege Tank, so I have expected that. Didn't think it could have that much back-blast as well though." Kuro shakes his right arm to expel the numb feeling on it.

Kurt asks: "It has that much power in it?"

"Not really. I just caught off guard." Pulling the weapon out, Kuro turns and gives it to Welkin. "How about you test it?"

"Wait, me?" Welkin points to himself in surprise.

"Well, since you two are here, I guess I should let you have some fun with it." Kuro shrugs, not seeing the problem.

"But I have to warn you..." Kuro turns back to the holographic screen. "We Phase-smiths are very strict about the conditions of our inventions. Even Hierarch Ionis has punched an unfortunate warrior through a wall because he accidentally broke his plasma pistol..."

"You don't have to tell them that!"

Harox turns back a bit and sees Ionis glaring at him for a second, before returning to his work. Harox 'hm' and continues: "So, for your own health, here's our warning: Break it, and I break you."

Feeling the danger aura emitting from the Phase-smith, the trio stand straight up and salute, as Kuro promises: "It will be in good hands."

Harox nods. "Very well. En taro Sair." And with that, the call ends.

Kuro lets out a sigh of relief. "God, Protoss are intimidating sometimes." The weapon is in Welkin's hands now, so Kuro leans on the table after saying: "The field's yours."

* * *

"It could be altered a bit to fit into another role of the squad?" Uni asks Imca, as she starts observing Var, Imca's main weapon.

"Yes. It could help me helping the squad in many ways." Imca simply answers, not really wanting to go into much details.

"... Guess that doesn't work." Uni sighs, as she gently leans the weapon on Imca's chair, before saying: "You don't really like talking to strangers, I get it. But, at least you can try to be friendly, you know?"

"Hm. You don't need to teach me about it." Imca talks back, not wanting to continue the matter.

"Then... let me change the subject. About Selvaria Bles..." Uni says, knowing the incoming response.

"DON'T!" Imca slams her left hand on the table. "Say... that name in front of me..."

"Right on spot." Uni simply says, earning her a glare from Imca. "Ace, your village's lost might be a drive for you to do what you're doing. But you have to remember: if you have a drive to do something, then everyone else also has one to do their own works. Selvaria is no different if she's so blindly following..."

"You just said it, BLINDLY following that prince! She has no drives at all!" Imca grits her teeth in anger.

"And why did it happen?" Uni asks back, not afraid of facing the Darcsen. "What would make her devote herself to Maximilian, even when the world wants to manipulate her, INCLUDING him?"

"Valkyrias are warriors! They would fight for anything..."

"Would you like to say that to Thirteen?" Uni interrupts and bluntly points that out, causing Imca to gasp in surprise. "Don't look so surprised. We are Deities, we have learnt to study a person's soul power. Hers and Alicia's resonate the same, so we could point it out easily."

"...So you're also manipulating..."

"We haven't told it to Alicia." Imca turns silent after hearing that. "Only at more appropriate time will we tell. Right now, the only ones who are aware of her lineage are me, Kuro and Faldio, Squad 1 Commander. And only IF she accepts to use her power to protect Gallia, would we let her use that power. If not, Kuro will not expose her to the world."

"THAT'S THE SAME AS..."

"Manipulation? We're all manipulated by everything around us." Uni's once again on the offense. "Your commander is leading your squad, right? That's also a form of manipulation. Thanks to Kuro, us Deities have a better way to look at every situation before giving out a final judge. And I have to mind you, Kuro was nothing but a mere human before he could be what he is today."

"..." Imca can't put a word in it, as it seems the girl before her already has ways to counter her points.

Uni sighs. "Look, Kuro already planned on how to end this war. He could end it right now by himself. However, he could foresee the consequences if he just simply does so. Unanswered problems, lives of unfortunate soldiers being caught in the war, lives of their families, and the most dangerous one being the actions of the leaders of all nations after it. We are outsiders, we're not supposed to help you at all. However, for a better for everyone, we decided to intervene, not for the sake of an individual, but of everyone."

"..."

Seeing that she couldn't get anymore words from the girl, Uni stands up. "I decided to pick this as a way to talk to you about your desire for revenge. Though, I suppose this is enough so you could rethink about it. If you need to ask something, feel free to call me." With that, Uni walks away, leaving Imca at the empty table.

* * *

Uni walks towards where she assumes Kuro is... and she sees a crowd of soldiers, with gun sounds echoing in the air. She pushes through a few of them and sees some lucky soldiers testing rifles there, and Kuro is standing aside, watching the practice going on. She walks to him and asks: "I have talked to Imca. Do you think it's enough?" Uni, of course, is aware that Kuro knows about the conversation.

"That's enough, for now. Our intervention at this point is too obvious already. We can't make it worse than it already is." Kuro says... then ducks as a ricochet bullet nearly hits his face. "Too close."

"Sorry!" Susie shouts her apology out loud.

"It's okay." Kuro waves his hands up, signaling that he's really okay. He then stands straight up and says: "Well at least everyone's spirit is still high..."

"Yeah, especially after you..." Before she could finish her words, she feels the cold of at least five spiral swords pointing at her back.

"I would rather not talk about it..."

I will.

'Oh screw you!'

* * *

Flashback

Squad 7's R&R: Prior to the main event

After hearing the 'special order' from Varrot, everyone starts cheering up for the relaxing vacation...

Except one very particular person, who's just reading a newspaper from afar.

"But, I don't really have a swimsuit..." Alicia says worriedly.

"Then we can go shopping! Come on, I will pick something for you!" Rosie says excitedly.

"Well, if you say so... Uni, do you want to go with us?"

"Of course. It will be fun." She then puts her finger on the lips, signaling the girls to not say anything. Then, she asks out loud: "How about we buy some for Kuro as well?"

The moment the name's called, the person stiffs up, and he stops flipping the pages of the newspaper.

"Oh come on now, Uni." Rosie rubs her temple. "It's supposed to be girls only..."

"Yeah, I know. And Kuro is the perfect candidate for this matter." Immediately Kuro throws the newspaper down and plans to run to the door, however, his right leg gets stuck at something and he falls face-first to the floor. He pushes up and turns back to see a rope connection his leg and Uni's. "Don't bother to run, Kuro. You know this will happen, right?"

"And you know I have to prepare for that, right?" Kuro says, while pulling out his katana and cutting the rope, then he gets up and opens the door... and somehow gets punched back and then gets hit on the back of the head by Uni, rendering him unconscious.

"Told you." Uni says, then pulls out more ropes. She then asks Rosie: "Can you help me tying him up?"

"Uh... is this normal?" Rosie accepts the rope, but she's a bit hesitate.

"Yeah, it is, really... at least to us." Uni giggles, as she starts tying Kuro's hands.

Welkin decides to pull Largo out of the room while saying: "So we leave him to you. Let's go Largo."

"Ah ah, okay..." Largo wants to ask what's wrong, but he definitely doesn't want to be somehow getting tied like Kuro.

...

"I know I ask a bit too late but... why?" Aika asks as she points towards the unconscious Kuro. The girls are walking on the street, and due to the current scene, which is Uni carrying the tied-up Kuro on her shoulder, many people are watching them with pure curiosity.

"Reasons." Uni answers, not wanting to spoil things out.

"But seriously, he might ruin the fun here." Edy complains.

"He won't." Uni assures, very confident at her actions.

"Although, we might have to let him pick his first, or..." Isara feels bad for Kuro, being the odd one of the group.

"We always have to do this whenever we're going to the beach. Just let me do the work."

...

"Um..." Even the shopkeeper is confused at the scene. She is happy that a lot of girls are checking her shop, but one single individual is like an eye thorn. "Miss... what..."

Placing the body down, Uni whispers into the shopkeeper's ears for her request... as she narrows her eyes after hearing that. "Miss... I don't think anyone here fits for that kind of..."

"Trust me. You're having a potential customer here." Uni assures her. The shopkeeper wants to complain, but... she decides against it and walks towards a bikini stand and starts taking some of the very adult-like ones.

And that causes the other girls to blush slightly, as Alicia leans towards Uni and asks: "Uni... who are... you... buying... that for?"

"Well, that's just a test." Uni shrugs casually. She then takes the bikinis and walks forward a dressing room... and puts them in there without walking in by herself.

Then, she returns and flicks Kuro's forehead, waking him up. And of course, he looks around to see where he is, and he starts sweating nervously. "Uni... this place..."

"Well, I have some stuffs for you, so you better wear them before I force you in it." And with no further explanations, she picks Kuro up and literally throws him into the dressing room, earning stares of surprises from everyone.

"That's... harsh, Uni." Isara now feels even more sorry for Kuro.

"Although... should we imagine how he looks like in them?" Marina suddenly suggests, and then everyone starts to shiver a bit at the... cursed imagination. "Better leave it be."

"Agree." Everyone says at the same time, before starting to pick up and suggest each other what to pick.

Ten minutes later... and no sights of Kuro walking out. Alicia starts getting worry and asks Uni: "Why is he taking time? Did he faint in there?"

"Probably." Uni shrugs again, completely ignoring looks of disbelief. "But, if there's no emergency call... Hey Kuro! Time to show the girls!"

"NO!" Kuro shouts out from inside the room... at least, that's the person everyone's assuming, until they register that: it's a woman voice.

"Yeah, you're ready." Uni then pokes inside and starts to pull the person out... with a lot of struggling. "Come on, just come out!"

And after a few seconds, Uni manages to pull the person out. Although, while they're expecting some ugly scenes... instead, Uni pulls out a beauty. She's in her early 30s, her long black hair covers her entire back, though it can't hide the rather adult-like bikini Uni has picked up, which is big enough to cover indecent parts of the body. However, the real surprise is the three rings in her left fingers, which is very familiar to Squad 7.

And her face is completely red from how... the bikini is like. After a few seconds being stared at, she squeaks in embarrassment and runs back into the room and uses the curtain to hide her body, leaving only the head to be visible. "Why did you pick these ones for me!? You know how I hate being in them!"

"But your girls WANT to see you in it." Uni smiles evilly. "And satisfying them is what they do, right?" That causes the red to be even deeper.

"... THAT'S KURO?" Upon hearing the exchange, the squad manages to chain all the information to get the result.

"Yep." Uni replies. Then, she walks to another stand, and says: "Everyone, I have a little game for you girls. I will pay for whoever manages to embarrass him with your choice of outfit ON him." She says that, but she knows that she will pay for all of them, considering being in here is already embarrassing enough for him.

And... well, you can try to imagine what happens next.

...

The next day

"STOP LAUGHING!" Kuro screams in embarrassment, as the guys laugh at 'her' unfortunate. "IT'S NOT FUNNY!"

"BUT... BUT THAT *Laughs even harder*" That earns 'her' more laughs as 'her' voice is super feminine, and even more as 'she' is literal squeaking.

"Now that's one hundred percent on the front page." Quickly snapping pictures, Irene says while giggling madly."

"You can keep it, but don't post it." Uni, for a rare chance, defends Kuro against that. "I don't think everyone would be appreciated to see 'that' side of their 'helper'."

"Then I could try to blackmail him."

"Wh... I forgot you could do that." Uni facepalms, but she's smiling at the thought of Kuro being constantly blackmailed by, literally everyone close to him. "I think Kuro would care less about it, though. Well, let's enjoy the fun, everyone." She then pulls the girls towards the beach and joins the others.

* * *

Present

"I swear, EVERY TIME we have ANY sorts of beach events..." Kuro pinches his nose bridge in embarrassment. "You know why I rarely used that form..."

"Yeah, for infiltration, and for making fun on yourself for everyone." Uni giggles, as Kuro's face heats up.

Although, I'm a bit disappointed that Squad E can't see that.

'...YES! THAT'S FOR THE BEST!' Kuro cools down, and Uni could hear that shouting in her mind, as he walks away while still having that cheering after hearing that news.

'Well, everything won't last forever. Shall we head to the next chapter?'

Yeah, it's for the best.

* * *

**Chapter 12 end!**

**So yeah, that's just a small fun before the fight happens. See you all in the next chapters!**


	13. Chapter 13

**Sorry for the delay. Lots of stuffs and stories happened. For now reviews are answered through PMs, mostly, so let's get to the main chapter!**

* * *

"We have to separate into three groups." Pointing at the map, Varrot summaries the situation. "If we're going in one big group, there's a high chance that the Imperial Units could send a signal to the other parts of Fouzen, thus endangering the workers there."

"Even with our advantages in darkness, it won't help if one of the alarms in the main base goes off." Kuro then pushes the pictures of the watchers' searching lights and Zaka. "The agent, Zaka, has given us locations of the watchers Imperial Units have stationed. If nothing changes when we reach there, we could use this as our advantages."

Welkin: "However, currently Squad 7 and Squad 1 are the only ones equipped with silenced weapons. We will be the ones infiltrating the place before everyone else heads in."

Faldio: "Squad 1 and Squad 422 will follow while getting the Darcsens out of the mine."

Kurt: "We will also have to be careful of Calamity Raven. Since this is a Darcsens rescue mission, they won't intervene...much. But, to be sure, we will guard the Northwest location for you all."

"Also, you need to be careful of this." Varrot puts the picture of the guarding armored train, Equus, on the table. "Currently, only the mercenaries have the power to take it down directly. Kuro, have you talked with the Heiress about the train?"

"I did. And she told me to destroy it. She said that Gallia doesn't need it, and I agree."

Varrot nods. "Then it's easier for us. I want none of the soldiers or the citizens to be in its line of sight, understand?"

"Roger!" All squad leaders receive the order.

Rosie picks up the picture of Zaka, then *tsk* in annoyance. "A Darcsen spy? Can't we pick anyone else for this?"

That won't go unnoticed by the only Darcsen in the room. "That's not nice. Any helps would be great for us."

"I just don't like the fact that I'm gaining help from another Darcsen." Rosie retorts back.

Before the two start throwing another argument, Largo stops them: "Cut it off, you two! We're soldiers here, and we have to follow orders. If we are ordered to work with a Darcsen, then so be it!"

"Kinda ironic when it comes from you, Largo. Remember the time in Vasel?" Kuro chuckles, reminding everyone about the event.

That makes the Lancer fake-cough to hide his embarrassment face. "Although, I won't promise anything if he turns out to be useless, okay?"

"He's an agent, so he must have some decent skills."

"Should I order Ace to go with you?"

"Don't need to, Seven. She's one of your trump cards, keep her with you. We have our owns." Then his left eye suddenly twitches. "So when will we start?"

Varrot: "Squad 422 should move now. The others will move at first light. Our attack starts at sundown. Dismiss."

* * *

"Shotguns?" One engineer asks in confusion. "I mean, sure, they're helpful. But we're in a stealth mission. Shouldn't we have anything else that's quieter?"

"That's why I called you all here, to understand why." Putting the weapons on the table, Kuro then points the one in his most left. "M1216, four tubes of bullets and each holds four 12 Gauge bullets." Picking it up, Kuro spins the magazine, then pulls out and makes a reload move. "That's how you use the gun. Four shots from one tube then change to the other tube."

Claudia Mann raises her hand up. "How fast can we shoot with it?"

"If my memories serve right, around a revolver's speed if your trigger finger is fast enough." He then moves to the next one. "Spas12. Eight shots, nothing extraordinary."

Noticing the stock, Dallas Wyatt asks: "Can we remove the stock? It seems to make the gun a bit too long."

To answer it, Kuro folds the stock up. "The stock is a situation-dependence in my opinion. I recommend you to use the stock until you have to fight in tight space, like in a building of sort."

"We could see why." Dallas replies. "And about that last one."

"This... is one of the very few weapons that I refuse to believe it being in the right category." Kuro scratches the back of his head before explaining. "AA-12 Shotgun. Or, as the longer name: Auto Assault 12. Guess why."

"Auto... so basically you can hold its trigger?"

"Yes, Nadine. And I kid you not, 8 rounds could be thrown out of window in around one second." Her left eye starts twitching again. "Alright, I have some more in the other tables. You guys can check them by yourself." With that, he leaves the table, letting the engineers testing the weapons themselves.

...

"That smile on your face... you're at your period again?" Uni asks, half jokingly half worryingly, as she watches Kuro walking into Squad 7's homeroom.

"Kinda." The man replies, then covers his lower face with his left hand while grabbing a chair with his right. "Anything worth talking?"

Uni sighs after Kuro sits down. "K-Sha is with the Shocktrooper's group, helping with the guns again. And Rosie's still being stuck up."

"After this she won't."

"Squad 422 has said their goodbye and headed to the other part of Fouzen. Squad 1 and squad 7 are also preparing for the fight." She then notices the uneasy feeling from Kuro. "Turn that off. Use that when we face the enemy."

"Sorry." The darkness slowly retreats back into Kuro's body. "But, judging by how I am right now, you know how cruel the general we're going to face is, right?"

"Yeah. But, I will give him a little credit. He did portray himself as a real, cruel person."

"Better than the manipulating types. Doesn't excuse his sins though."

"... So, you're going to use that form?"

"Seems so. Not sure myself. Let's see how things turn out."

* * *

The next night

"Ready up." Marina and the sniper team tosses their covers away, as they start aiming their guns down to the canyon. "No tanks in sight. Alicia, move your squad towards and stay out of the lights."

"Got it." Alicia then gives a signal, and the Scouts move up and hide themselves into the shadow. They're having their silenced sidearms ready in their hands, and their main weapons on the soldiers.

Wavy takes a chance to rush to another warehouse, peaks inside while giving a 'hold' signal to the rest. A Scout has separated from his group and heads straight towards Wavy, while the other Imperial units head the other way. The moment the Scout walks into the view, Wavy drops him with a point-blank bullet to the head, as he quickly holds the body up before it falls down and moves the corpse right to the side, avoiding any insights. No Imperial soldiers notice the event occurred.

Moving to a nearby camp, where the lights are off, Alicia and Freesia York moves the Night goggles down and quietly head into it. There are soldiers sleeping here, so they give them a bullet for each to the head. After it's done, Freesia quietly says: "Goodnight to all of you."

"Alicia, Freesia, wait for our mark. A Shocktrooper is standing outside of the camp." Tapping through the earpiece, Susie warns the duo. After hearing the confirms, she calls for the sniper team to deal with him. A few seconds later, a silenced shot from above hits the Shocktrooper right at the head. "You two can come out now." The duo go out and pull the corpse into the camp to clear the evidences. "Rosie, where's your team?"

"I'm under one of the light towers. Snipers, can you give me a sitrep?"

"... Two on the tower... Wait, one sniper is going down the ladder. Hide." Immediately Rosie rushes into a nearby rock and hides behind it. "Wait..." Rosie peaks out a bit to see said Sniper walking towards another warehouse. "All good. The one on the watchtower is an Engineer. Get up the ladder, and wait for my kill." Rosie acknowledges and starts heading up, then stops at the last step. "...Go." Rosie climbs into the spot, and the Engineer is a bit surprised and turns back, only for his world to go dark as the sniper shot goes through the helmet and blasts his head off. Quickly putting the soldier down quietly, Rosie starts changing the course of the light so the others could move up.

Moments later, the other lights are also changing courses as well, meaning that Gallia Militia has secured them. The mortar squad of Empire has taken noticed of no responses from the watchtower, so they try to call the others. Try, because all they receive back are static sounds. Then, the sound of a body dropping on the ground catches their attentions, as they turn back... and see the world suddenly spinning around, and the last thing they see is a mask, with a face of X.X on it. "Hell... awaits." That's the last thing they hear before their consciousness fades.

"Mortar neutralized." Kuro, using the voice of the mask, calls out for the entire squad. "Any leftovers?"

"A few, but they're not aware of what we're doing." Welkin replies. "All groups, neutralize them all."

"Roger." That's everyone's response.

"I will wait at the entrance." Kuro simply replies before turning off the radio.

"Okay..." Welkin weakly answers to the dead radio, before calling Uni and K-Sha: "Hey uh... do you know what happened this time?"

K-Sha answers: "To put it VERY LIGHTLY... it's the day of the month."

"...Huh?" Obviously Welkin is oblivious about it.

Uni sighs. "Just, don't trigger him, or it's going to be like Barious again."

That makes Isara shiver. "That bad?"

"Worse." Both Uni and K-Sha replies.

* * *

"What... the hell is this?" Largo says what is in everyone's mind right now. Welkin, Largo, Rosie, Alicia, Kuro and Uni have come into one of the houses that the current workers have to stay. And the scene before them makes them sick. Sick of what the Empire has done to their people.

Also, Kuro's wearing a dark hoodie to cover his head, with his hands wearing white gloves as well. The lab coat is nowhere to be found.

"Not something we like." Uni grits her teeth in anger. "Not even ASIC is this bad."

"They could be if we didn't stop them in time." The mask responds, startling the Darcsens inside the house a bit.

"You're strange folks, for sure." A voice catches the group's attention, as they turn to a table to see Zaka sitting next to it. "What brings you here? And how did you get in?"

The commander of squad 7 introduces himself: "My name is Welkin Gunther. We have received your call and brought soldiers to get everyone out of here."

"Ah, Welkin Gunther. That's a name I have heard." Standing up, the agent gives Welkin a hand-shaking. "The name's Zaka. It's nice to meet you."

"Likewise."

Zaka then notices Uni and the masked Kuro, as he says: "I have seen you from the newspaper as well, Uni wasn't it?"

"That's me." Uni replies, with another hand-shaking. "You guys have gone through tough times, and we're pulling you out of this."

"Looking forward to it. So... mister Kuro... why the mask?"

"It's personal." =.= "You will know soon."

Zaka decides not to push the matter. "Very well. Follow me please."

...

Walking into another room, which is like a mini war room, Zaka explains the situation: "Currently, Fouzen's factories are located on the canyon's edge, split between an upper and lower level. The armored train, as I have reported before, runs on a highway rail that no normal guns could reach it."

"That's why we're here." Zaka looks at Kuro. "We could deal with the armored train. However, our priority is to get every worker out first. Do you have any retreating plans?"

Zaka points at a location in the end of the map that's far away from the highway rail. "There. However, there's no covers if we try to run. It would be suicidal if we run without dealing with the patrols first."

"Sniper team could cover from here..." Uni points out the high ground, then moves to the lower level. "If there are any tanks, our Lancers will deal with them... Kuro, contact K-Sha and tell her to take a look at these locations and make sure no Imperial Soldiers are there." Nodding, Kuro starts tapping into the radio to call the gunslinger. "Of course, that's the worst scenario. If we manage to deal with that train first, however, the evacuation will be easier. Zaka, if we're not here, what are you planning to take it down?"

"Well, I'm going to use this." Pulling out a device, Zaka explains. "It's a ragnite bomb. I'm going to blow up the rail so the train will fall into the canyon."

"Good idea." Welkin compliments. However, there's a problem: "But, how are you going to reach that rail? Surely their General would send protections there, right?"

"Normally, yes. However, since they're too proud of themselves, they will leave the place vulnerable at night."

"I see." Suddenly, a sound of something being crushed causes everyone to jump up and turns to the source, to see what's left of a broken phone in Kuro's left hand. Seeing the twitching fingers, Uni feels that there's something wrong with this room. She slowly turns to Zaka and asks: "Zaka... it's not appropriate time, but... how many Darcsens... have been killed and tortured in this place?"

Zaka's smile drops. "Too many. No one is spared."

"...Welkin, please handle the rest." Uni says, then pushes Kuro out of the room.

"...What was that about?" Zaka asks the commander of Squad 7.

"I'm... not sure. But... I guess it's somewhat related to the deaths here."

...

The Darcsens look at the mercenary duo with confused eyes as Uni puts Kuro down to a chair. She then places her hands firmly on his shoulders while whispering: "Calm down, Kuro... calm... down... The operation is nearly completed. We can't screw it up now..."

The mask starts flashing with all kinds of emotions, and yet Kuro doesn't respond vocally.

"...Kuro... Are you even listening to me?" Either he's not... here, spiritually, or he's too occupied with what he has seen.

"Miss... what's wrong with him?" The little Darcsen girl walks closer to Uni with concern written on her face.

"He's... not very well. Emotionally." Uni replies. "At this rate, he might raze the whole Fouzen down in a second..."

"What could we do for you?" The girl asks back with a little hope that she could do something.

"...Follow my lead. Don't question it." Uni says slowly, not wanting to accidentally trigger something inside Kuro.

"O...Okay..." The girl nods timidly.

"Good. Now..." Uni uses her left hand to gently push the little girl into Kuro, the former yelps quietly in surprise. The girl then blushes up a bit when Uni starts wrapping Kuro's arms around her shoulders, which causes the Darcsens nearby to move a little closer in concern and curiosity.

"Miss... this is..."

"Don't worry. He wouldn't dare to harm you." Uni reassures the girl. She then starts whispering into Kuro's ears: "Do you feel it? The little life you're holding in your arm? An endangered life being in a fragile young girl?"

"..." His fingers slowly move, but it's not too significant.

"Do you wish to harm her?" Uni immediately raises her left index finger up towards the Darcsens to stop them from shouting. "Is it worthy of the power you gained?"

"...No." That's the mask's response. At least that calms down the other Darcsens.

"The world is trying to kill her, despite her innocence. Will you let it happen?"

"...No."

"What would you do?"

"...Protect the weak. Fight the strong. Destroy evil."

"You are not a monster. You are not a devil. You are Kuro. You are a symbol. You do not follow the rules of nature."

"I am Kuro..."

"You wish for a peaceful world for everyone. You wish to protect it with all costs. You die, to let the others live."

"I wish for a better world..."

"The Darkness sprouted from your death. The Light given by the late Goddesses. Use them wisely. Don't let them control you."

"Don't let them control me..."

"Remember: Peace is always fragile. That's why you always try to protect it. Never stop your work in doing so."

"..."

Everyone nearly holds their breaths as Uni stops her whispering and slowly stands straight up. Kuro then slowly puts his left hand on the small girl's head, nearly making her jump. However, from afraid to relaxed, the girl starts feeling him gently patting her head. Everyone now exhales in relieve.

"That's good..." Uni wipes out her non-existed-sweat on her forehead. She then notices the soldier's group has headed out. She asks them: "You guys are done?"

"For a while." Zaka answers. He then asks back: "What's that about?"

Uni sighs. "It's about..."

She's interrupted when K-Sha walks into the house. "Good news and bad news, everyone! Faldio's squad has successfully evacuated everyone, but Squad 422 sent out a warning signal. Apparently one Imperial Unit managed to call out to the main center. The soldiers are starting to position now. We need to move!"

"... Then it's time I call out my own army, huh?" The mask suddenly speaks up, causing everyone to turn at Kuro, as he pats the Darcsen little girl one more time before standing up. "Everyone, prepare to evacuate everyone. I will provide cover when that train shows up."

"Well that's a change of tone." Zaka comments. "Alright, everyone. We should start running now. The Empire is not going to let us go that easily!"

* * *

"Sniper team, report!"

"Enemies are moving towards you! The exit is clear of Imperials, but their tanks could try to use mortar shots, and there's no cover!"

"I will deal with the tanks. Everyone, cover for the workers to get out of here!"

Everyone starts issuing orders for the Darcsens to run away, with Kuro (hasn't turned back yet) preparing the new weapon provided by the requester. Putting the weapon into his right arm, he observes as the weapon covers his entire right arm this time, with the top design being a thin, golden lance instead of a shield like the original Glaive Cannon. Grabbing the main handle and tapping on the side, a handle spreads out so he could grab it with his left hand for stabilizing the weapon. On top and bottom, there are two rails that's designed to line up with the main cannon at one point. The moment he grabs the additional handle, the main cannon opens, and the phase disruptor core also peeks out on the opposite side, creating a straight line that resembles an energy railgun. There are also vents that swivel in the way so it wouldn't blast excess energy into the wearer.

"Let's see what you have done in upgrading this so far..." Kuro says to himself, before raising it up towards one of the Imperial tanks in his sight. Slightly pulling the main handle back, the disruptor core starts pouring energy into the main cannon, as Kuro looks through one of the rails for the focus point, and presses the trigger on the additional handle. Energy starts gathering into an orb in front of the main cannon, and after a second, the shot blasts out of the weapon. The energy stream collides into the armor plate of the tank, then penetrates through the armor like melt cheese, and travels several meters back before hitting something. The tank then explodes, causing nearby soldiers to be blasted away as well.

Also, that one shot dislocates Kuro's right shoulder, due to the vulnerability of his current state. Quickly fixing his shoulder, the mask whines. "Damn. I thought it shouldn't be still this much recoil."

"Are you okay?" K-Sha quickly moves to his location, as the two get into cover. "That sounds painful."

"Thanks for concerning me. Luckily it's not so painful, given of the current state I'm in. K-Sha, assist the Shocktroopers. Don't let the Imperial go near the Darcsens."

"I hear you." K-Sha then gives him the bomb Zaka has built. "Have any ideas for this? Zaka is using the distraction to head to the train rail now."

"...A few." With that, K-Sha jumps away to the exit.

"...Right, then. Just keep them busy for a while." With that, he peeks out again and fires the weapon, fully prepared for the recoil.

...

A few minutes later

"Welkin, is Edelweiss ready?"

"Rolling in, Uni."

During the distraction, Squad 7's commander and Isara has sneaked their tank through the main entrance, and now they start causing troubles in that location, with the help of Shocktroopers and Engineers.

"Keep them distracted. There are only a few Darcsens left."

"What about the train rail?"

"Zaka has rigged it already. Only to wait for that thing to show up..." Just in time that the train starts rolling to the set bomb. Uni changes the channel: "Zaka, blow it into oblivion!"

"No need to tell me!" A second after the answer, an explosion occurs right under the train, causing all activities to be halt. Uni has expected the train to start falling... "No good! Only half of the explosions went off!" Only for the warning to come.

After a brief moment, one of Imperial Tanks starts turning its main cannon towards the groups of Darcsens and plans to shoot, only for another of its tank to be suddenly thrown at it from afar, colliding at each other and explodes. Imperial units turn to where the tank was thrown, to see several weapon crates being thrown right at them as well.

"While they're not recovered, run!" Kuro's order straightens the Militia soldiers up, as they start ordering the Darcsens to keep running...

"TO GALLIA'S MILITIA..." The voice of Gregor being amplified through the microphone echoes throughout the canyon. "STOP YOUR ATTACKS IMMEDIATELY AND RETREAT FROM FOUZEN. IF YOU REFUSE..." One of the cannons from the train starts moving and aims at the groups of Darcsens. "WE WILL BOMBARD THE ESCAPING DARCSENS! IF YOU DON'T RETREAT IMMEDIATELY..."

An energy blast shoots through the air, collides towards said cannon and causes the weapon to explode on impact. While everyone's surprised at the event, Kuro's mask voice comes from the lower level with the help of its own amplifier: "Hey! Pick a fight with someone your size!"

"... YOU MUST BE THAT MERCENARY BRAT EVERYONE IS BRAGGING ABOUT."

"And you must be the demon of a general the Empire is scared off, huh? Bad news for you, Fouzen will be your grave, and today will be the last day you live."

"HA! IF YOU'RE SO CONFIDENT, THEN TRY TO COME UP HERE! FIRE THE LOCOMOTIVE CANNON!" Another cannon starts turning, and shoots at the moment it's at the position.

Kuro raises his left hand up... and a black hole appears in the sky, absorbing the shells into it. Closing his palm down, the black hole disappears, and he replies: "As long as I'm here, don't try to kill the innocents." He then starts rushing towards the bridge and starts jumping up towards the train.

Seeing that Kuro's on their back, Welkin orders: "Everyone! Keep running! We're almost out of here!"

"ROGER!" That's everyone from his squad responding.

"YOU'RE NOT GETTING OUT ALIVE!" Another shot is loaded and shot into the air. This time, the black hole reappears and throws back the shells from before, and both shots explode in the air upon contact. "YOU..."

"Alicia, Rosie, Largo. We leave the rest to you!" Uni orders the others, before she grabs K-Sha in her transformed state and flies up to Equus.

Landing on one of the cannons, Kuro places the ragnite bomb onto it and shoots it with his revolver, detonating the bomb right at his face, blowing up the cannon as well. Moments later, after the fire dies down a bit, he puts the Protoss weapon back into his pocket dimension, before heading into one of the train heads, where he assumes Gregor is inside...

"Kuro." He briefly turns back to see Uni and K-Sha landing on the train as the former calls for him. "We will come with you. We could use some backfires."

"...Sure."

...

Reaching towards his gun, Gregor aims towards the only door in the room, with the others also raising their guns as well, waiting for the mercenaries to come in. Then, the door opens slowly, then something is thrown right into the room, causing everyone to duck behind cover. However, after a second, the mercenaries immediately kick the door in and shoot everyone dead except Gregor. The General raises his gun up, only for his forearm to be stabbed by Kuro's bloody scissors, before he pulls the scissors out and then cuts Gregor's elbow, completely separating his arm.

The general of Empire shouts in pain, as he falls to the floor. He then gets stepped on by Kuro over his chest. Gregor watches in anger as the other girls start using Equus' cannon to shoot his own troops. "Get your hands out of the weapon, you..." Kuro immediately presses his foot down harder, causing Gregor to gasp in pain before he turns his focus to the one who just cut his arm. "You... even if I fall here, it won't stop His Grace from evading Gallia."

Kuro puts his left hand on the mask while chuckling, with the mask showing ^.^. "You really think so? Selvaria must have not told you about the fight between me and her, then."

"You just got one lucky shot..."

"Then let me tell you: I LET her and Maximilian live a bit longer, because they're crucial for the future. If not, I would have let my friend kill the Prince in Barious already."

"You think you have the authority to do so?"

"I don't. But..." The mask suddenly goes off, as Kuro grabs it and lifts it off his face, thus moving the hoodie backward. Now, Gregor sees the face of the current Kuro, and for the first time, he feels fear. "Death... orders... I... obey. Death... absolute." And to add up for the fear, Kuro kneels down so his face could be closer to Gregor's, with the scissors starting to open and close, creating a sickening sound. "Die... for peace."

...

"Is everyone here already?" Gathering the whole squad, Welkin asks Alicia.

"Seems to be. Only Kuro's group hasn't returned..." Then, the train blows up, shining up the canyon. "Uhm... ah right, they can fly."

"Well, they're there, right?" Following Rosie's finger pointing up the sky, Alicia and Welkin look up to see Uni with K-Sha in her arms descending down, with Kuro stepping on... something black.

Upon seeing the mercenaries, everyone starts cheering up for their success. Welkin then notices Kuro's hood being pulled down as he turns at a dark corner, not letting everyone see his face. "Hey Kuro, thanks for the help. Let's return back, shall we?"

"... Will follow." That causes everyone within the earshot stop cheering. "You go."

"...Uh, Kuro? What's wrong?" Alicia is a little scared of that change of tone. "Are you..."

"I think it's time to show them, Kuro." Uni says to the man. "I mean, it's better than to do so after the celebration, right?"

"...Cover... children." Kuro orders, his voice creepy and cold sends shiver on everyone's back. "Not... pretty."

K-Sha, turning back to her cheerful form, then says to the Darcsens. "Everyone, please cover your kids' eyes. This is not pretty." The workers don't understand yet, but decide to follow. Once it's done, K-Sha says to Kuro: "It's okay now. You can turn back."

"..." Kuro starts throwing the hood back, showing his hair with blood splatted on it, which makes people slightly disgusted. Then, he turns to his right, startles everyone with his stitch-full face, pale gray skin and a lifeless right eye. Then, when he fully turns back, many women scream in fear, and men nearly grab their weapons to try to defend. The other half of the face is lack of any pieces of skin, it's just a half of a human skull, an empty eye socket with some sorts of symbol spinning in it. Not even a war veteran has seen that kind of damage, let alone people who hasn't seen much of a war.

Zaka back-steps in surprise, before asking: "Kuro... what... the hell are you?"

"...Victim...a curse's victim..." Kuro replies, the stitches slowly drip blood out as well.

Alicia covers her own with her hands, feeling nausea coming to her. "It...is worse than I thought..."

"*Sigh* Told you..." Kuro then pulls the hood back up and presses the mask back on his face. The mask turns back on and speaks for him: "It's not that I have to hide the face because of some dark secrets or so. I just don't like people running out because of how I look like, okay?"

Largo scratches his head, then says: "Holy hell... and I thought our war is already bloody enough..."

The mask then turns into ^.^ and says: "Okay now. My past has nothing to do with us managing to rescue everyone. Let's return and celebrate for our successful operation, okay?"

That temporarily earns nods of agreement from everyone. Then, Welkin's radio rings up, as he answers: "Hello? This is Welkin."

"Hey, it's Seven. We have managed to pull out with the Darcsens, no casualties. What about your side?"

Welkin then sees Uni starting to answer her phone as well, then she tells Welkin: "Faldio is also successful as well. It's a total victory for us!"

Now that cheers everyone up, as everyone starts shouting happily for their escape.

Welkin can't help but smile at the scene. Kuro then walks up to him, and Welkin says: "You're right. It's time for the celebration. Let's get back to Randgriz. I'm sure Your Highness would be pleased to hear our successful mission."

* * *

**Chapter 13 end!**

**Fouzen has returned for Gallia. Next objective: take Marberry Shore back, and prevent a certain someone's death.**

**So yeah, wasn't planning to show 'that face' of Kuro to allies. But then, Halloween happened :3.**

**And yeah... IRL, we want to defend, not attack. That's why I decided to destroy Equus instead of bringing it back to do the research.**

**At least I gave Zaka's bomb an honorable job. Wouldn't let it go to waste.**

**MAYBE the next chapter will come out after a few days. See you all in the future everyone!**


	14. Chapter 14

**I'm rushing a little bit, sorry about it. Anyway, Marberry Shore will be in the next chapter, considering I just remembered THIS event to be happened between it. Enjoy!**

* * *

Location: Randgriz Castle

"I must thank you all for your efforts in rescuing all Darcsens in Fouzen and liberating the area out of the Empire's control." Princess Cordelia praises the commanders of the squads which took part in the operation. "And we have heard of the case of Squad 422. We will lift the 'wanted' sign off you."

"Thank you very much, madam." Kurt bows respectfully.

"Pardon my rudeness, but shouldn't you call Kuro and his friends here as well? They contributed the most in this operation."

"I'm aware of it, mister Welkin. However, we have already done so before I called you. And currently Kuro is talking with miss Gassenarl right now."

Faldio: "The younger daughter of Gassenarl family, madam?"

"Yes. And it's... classified information, if you understand what I'm saying." Cordelia glances at the statue of Valkyrur on her left, and all three commander immediately understand. She then changes the subject: "I wish for the next operation to be successful, thus being the next step to the independence of Gallia."

...

"So, that's your decision?" Kuro, in his base form, leans on the balcony bar and watches the town of Randgriz, before asking the question.

"Yes. My family would surely be against it, but I'm not a little girl anymore. After the truth, I can no longer support them." Audrey has made up her mind.

"Well, you're a big girl now. The princess would be glad to hear it from you."

"... Where will you go after this?"

"Here and there. The first thing, however, is help another squad that's a bit far away from here."

"...The Federation?"

"Most of them are from Gallia. Speaking of that..." Kuro pulls out his phone and starts dialing to a certain someone. "...Hey, Claude? How has you been?"

"Nice to hear you. It's been a while." The commander of Squad E replies. "And we're fine, thanks for asking. What's the occasion?"

"We just managed to liberate Fouzen. One of the Drei Stern, Gregor, has fallen as well."

"That's great news!" Claude exclaims. "Raz will surely be happy hearing that."

"Yep. Oh, and Claude..." Kuro's tone drops the humor. "You should ask for the winter gears now. Winter is coming soon."

"...Huh?" Clearly Claude is confused. "It's just August. Winter is at least three months away." I need to clarify that, winter is from about November to around the middle of February in our country. If you are confused about it being different than in your country, then here's my explanation.

"My hometown could be sunny and raining at the same time. Preparation before time is better than to counter it, isn't it?"

"... You have a good point. But, it might be a little hard to convince the higher-ups."

"Try. It will save you, trust me."

"Well... I trust you. Thanks for telling me that. Also, do you need something?"

"... How is Riley doing?"

"Riley? She goes along well with everyone."

"What about you?" This time Kuro says it a bit teasingly.

And the undertone completely goes over Claude's head. "What do you mean?"

"...Never mind. You're just as dense as Welkin. Call you in the future." With that, Kuro turns off the call, without explaining what he meant.

"So that's the squad's leader you're going to help?" That earns Audrey a nod. "He had a point about winter..."

"General Selvaria is not the only Valkyria, you know."

"... Then why didn't you tell him so?"

"The higher-ups of Federation are fully aware of their existences. Of course, we have told Squad E about it, but to make sure no information is leaked, I need to keep my words down to an acceptable level."

"I see... Still, about the Valkyria... you still want to keep her alive?"

"The General? Yes. I know that she has killed innocents, and yes, I know she's following Maximilian so willingly. However, there's one man there that truly cares about her. Once I get the contact with him, I can make sure that Selvaria wouldn't assist the Empire anymore."

Audrey crosses her arms in front of her. "Even when you are... whatever you are, you're way too overconfident."

"It's not overconfident. I'm risking a lot in this gamble." Kuro pulls out a file from nowhere. "This is all I found from my power, about all the 'massive Ragnite accidents' in Empire and Federation. And guess what? They're all Valkyria's experiments."

Audrey widens her eyes in shock. "I have heard of those before. It's really because..."

"Mind you, they are all children." That shocks the girl even more. "And that's just power outbursts. Imagine a fully-controlled Valkyria doing so. A wrong move and everything's over."

"... What... What have you planned?"

"Note here." Gesturing Audrey to sit on a chair nearby, he takes one for himself and sits down as well. "Their power depends not only on their concentration, but also their current emotion as well. To save a Valkyria from her own destruction, we need to make sure she won't go berserk on anyone. And currently, the ONLY thing that could push Selvaria into that state, is when Maximilian throws her away. Of course, I'm not planning to use her for this war..."

"Wait." Audrey interrupts. "Let me get this one clear: You are doing this, to make sure no there's no obstacles between you and Maximilian, or it's just because you want to do so?"

"... The latter." The file in Kuro's hand disappears, replaced by a pink lotus blooming and shining brightly. "That's in my very soul, to want that everyone lives in the fairest world life could offer. It's nearly impossible, since everyone has different mindsets, different opinions. However... you, me, Darcsens, Valkyrias... we are all human. We're in the same level. We shouldn't treat others anywhere below than ourselves."

"... You are no longer human."

"That doesn't deny the fact that I started as one."

"... I will hold my judgment, for now."

Kuro nods. Then, his phone rings up again. "Hello?"

* * *

Location: Randgriz city

"Calamity Raven is in the city." Uni warns, as she hides herself in one of the dark alleys. Her gun's on her shoulder, as she's speaking through the earpiece to Kuro.

"Do you need assistants?"

"I don't think so. We can deal with it." To make point for the matter, K-Sha pulls the bolts of her submachine guns.

"You're using the shock bullets, right?"

"Of course."

"Very well then. Begin the operation." With that, Kuro cuts the radio short.

"Alright. Let's go." Uni says to K-Sha while putting a suppressor on her gun.

"Roger."

...

"Is anyone in their positions yet?" Captain Dahau asks one of his soldiers.

"There are a couple more that haven't reported back yet. Should we commence the attack?" The Scout responds, then asks his leader for the green light.

"Not yet. Until we're in the right position, would we start. We can't risk hurting the civilians because of some stray bullets."

"Roger!" The soldier salutes before he returns back to his work.

Lydia asks the leader of Calamity Raven: "Do you think they just took a scenic road? I mean, most of them aren't from Gallia..."

"We're in a mission, and they know it." Dahau counters. He then looks around for a few seconds before saying: "Strange. The city of Randgriz is too empty."

"Shouldn't it be? Most of the forces are ordered to head to Naggiar already." Lydia replies back.

"Could be. But then again, Gallian Headquarters is full of idiots. They took the bait quite easily..."

"SIR!" The Scout from before returns and speaks up in panic: "The troops from the side are being attacked!"

"What?" Dahau asks back in confusion. He then orders: "Just eliminate the guards. Don't tell me you're afraid of doing?"

"But sir! They're just two girls!"

"What? Are you kidding me?" Lydia shouts this time. "You're beaten up by two girls? Don't you notice how weird it sounds..."

"Wait." Dahau interrupts the sub-commander. He then asks the Scout: "Have you confirmed who they are?"

"Sir! One of them is the mercenary of the Militia! The other just joined in the fight against us in Dillsburg Bridge!"

"I see... how many have fallen so far?" If that's the case, then their casualties must be high already.

"...None, sir." Earning looks of disbelief from the commanders, the soldier quickly explains: "They're not using lethal-bullets! One of our soldiers managed to report back before he got shot, but we could still hear him stuttering, and the others have confirmed as well!"

"Okay, this is getting ridiculous! How did they even find us out that fast?" Lydia grunts. "Dahau, what's your plan?"

"...If they're here, then it must mean the other mercenary is around as well. Begin the operation."

"Roger!"

* * *

Location: Randgriz Castle

"Are those gun fires?" The commanders of the squads look out of the castle after they leave the main ceremony room. "Randgriz is being attacked?"

"It must be Calamity Raven." Kurt grits his teeth. "Only they would be daring enough to do so while the main forces are in Naggiar."

Faldio: "Then we should gather our squads and..."

"There's no need." The trio turns to see Kuro and Audrey walking towards them. "Uni and K-Sha are intercepting and interrupting their advances already. We just have to wait and gather the paralyzed soldiers and throw them into jail."

Kurt is not happy about it. "I know those two are strong, but two against a well-trained squad is..."

"Did you forget about ricochet bullets?" Kuro pulls out his revolver and shoots at the wall to his right. A barrier of sort stops the bullet from damaging the wall, and the bullet bounces off it and heads to the roof, but then bounces again as another glyph shows up. After a few times, the bullet heads straight to Kuro's head, but he has already predicted the shot and caught the bullet with his hand. "I don't need to be on the battlefield to help them fighting. I'm their eyes in these cases."

Both Welkin and Faldio shake their heads disapprovingly, as the former asks: "But still, it's better to have someone watching their backs, and protecting the civilians, right?"

"If you think it's necessary, then I won't stop you then." Kuro shrugs.

Faldio: "It's our duty, Kuro. Welkin, Thirteen, let's move out."

"Let's go." Kurt and Welkin agree, as the three start heading out to gather their squads.

Audrey then walks to Cordelia and asks: "Can I have a word with you, Your Highness?"

Cordelia nods. "Of course." She then says her goodbye to Kuro before the girls retreat back into the ceremony room.

"Hm..." Tapping into the earpiece, Kuro calls for the girls: "Heads up, girls. Squad 1, Squad 7 and Squad 422 are on their way. Do you think you could slow down a bit?"

* * *

Location: Randgriz city

"Unless you... you would just turn their real bullets into BB, huh?" Uni retreats further inside the roof she's currently standing in as the Calamity Raven's shocktroopers focus their fires on her. "Fine then." She then changes the channel to call K-Sha: "You heard that?"

"Loud and clear." Her Gold Form's weapon shoots out three grenades towards the group of shoulder, and the grenades immediately blow up the moment they touch the ground, blasting the Calamity Ravens off the ground and shocking them in the process. Once the current threat is gone, K-Sha asks back: "So we wait?"

"Maybe we should head to the main gate. Who knows if they decide to ignore us and head straight there?"

"You have a point."

...

"Sir! Gallia troops are closing in!" One of the Calamity Raven reports to Dahau. "We also spotted Nameless's uniforms among them as well!"

"In the middle of Gallia troops? Are you sure?" Dahau asks back in disbelief.

"Sir, no offend, but you said it yourself before that, ONLY Nameless wears those uniform."

Lydia: "Does that matter anymore? We have to retreat now!"

"You should. I don't think you want to be caught now, do you?" The trio turn to find who just said that, and see Kuro sitting on a wooden crate with his legs crossed and his sword sheathed and ready in his left hand. Lydia and the soldier raise their guns up immediately and shoot at him, only for him to deflect every single shot before re-sheathe the sword once the last bullet is out. "Don't bother shooting me."

"So, you already knew about our plans to infiltrate Randgriz." Dahau deduces the situation. "Did Nameless tell you about us?"

"Does that matter now? Aren't you on the run now?" Gathering thunder in his right hand, Kuro asks back. "I won't chase you down. However, if Gallian manages to get you, then don't blame me."

"Why do you think we would..." Kuro then shots the thunder in his hand into the sky, interrupting Lydia as black clouds start appearing on the sky. "What the hell? You can create thunder?"

"Kinda. Let's see what Random Number God could hit." Kuro jumps off the crate... just in time for a thunder strike to hit the box, making it explode behind Kuro, causing him to stagger a bit before turning back. He immediately shouts to the sky: "Hey! Don't troll me like that!"

"Sir, we need to leave now!" The soldier shouts, gaining the commanders' attention.

"Right..." Dahau focuses on Kuro for a few more seconds before starting to leave...

"One last moment, Dahau." He stops for a second when Kuro calls him back. "I admire your purpose, but not your method. As long as you keep using violence for the independence of the Darcsens, then we're still enemies."

"... You're the same as we are, using violence as well." Dahau replies back.

Kuro shrugs. "Because you used it first."

With the exchange done, Calamity Raven members quickly pull as many paralyzed soldiers as possible with them and escape Randgriz before Gallian could catch them.

...

"Defeated by two girls and a guy. This is not what I'm expecting!" Lydia grunts at their lost. "And that's when they didn't use anything dangerous at all!"

"With the fight in Dillsburg, it's not surprising at all." Dahau calmly replies towards Lydia's frustration. "But, to mess with nature itself? It's not something a normal human could do."

"... Do you think that he's a Valkyria? It's impossible, you know."

"The ones giving us the information haven't said anything about him being one, so I don't think it's the case. Still, he FOUGHT Selvaria, so he's dangerous to us... But, this event could draw some attentions from Naggiar."

"I would agree. However, with those mercenaries seemingly knowing our moves, would it be the case?"

"... And the fact Nameless is fighting alongside Gallian Military... something is wrong here. We must have gotten some details missed."

"Nevertheless, let's just go back for now. We will think a new plan later."

* * *

Time skip

Location: Randgriz Castle

"We still have a lot of work in finding the traitors in our midst." Cordelia notes. "But we can't afford to get Randgriz unattended like today. Do you have any suggestions?"

"Since Calamity Raven is still out there, Nameless should be tasked to trace them down... and try to get them out of our hair." Kuro suggests.

Kurt disagrees: "His ambition is too great to be talked down, Kuro. We need to prove him that we could help the Darcsens without violence, which would go against his belief."

Welkin agrees: "Also, many people still believed that the Valkyrias are the superiors, and Darcsens are still at fault."

"Then... could I leave that matter to you, Faldio? Maybe the ruins in Barious could give us something more about the time before, then..."

"I would send them to Irene Ellet so she could post it on anywhere she could, since she has quite a good reputation." Faldio understands Kuro's plan. "Public announcement from the most neutral source of community. I see what you're doing."

"Neutrality at its finest."

"However, the Yggdist Cardinal, Gennaro Borgia, would not be pleased at what you would find." Audrey warns. "While I have seen it, I decided not to tell him yet, and he is a person who would do anything to shut us down."

"... Speaking of that, Audrey, have you, uh... renounced, or something..."

"Not yet, mister Kuro. While many of his lines are for his ambitions only, I could see some rights in them."

"Suit yourself then."

Welkin then asks Cordelia: "Your Highness, when would you show yourself to the world?"

"After this war. I believe it to be the best time to do so."

"Then it's settled then. We will separate from here. Let's end this war as soon as possible."

* * *

**Chapter 14 end!**

**I was expecting it to be longer... but hey, it's a small infiltration. Can't have many actions in a small period of time.**

**For now, that's it. Let's see what the future could hold.**


	15. Chapter 15

**So uh, sorry for the delay. Enjoy chapter 15 everyone!**

* * *

Days later. Location: Gallia Militia Base, War room

"Something to cover the enemies' vision?" Uni asks.

"Correct, miss Uni." Eleanor explains. "Marberry Shore basically has no covers between us and the Imperial Army."

Welkin follows: "Also, the enemies have entrenched the whole place with gunneries and mortars. The leading path is also narrow, and that means the foot soldiers will have to lead here."

Rosie complains: "And if we directly go in, it's basically a suicide mission. I doubt even a cat with nine lives can survive that."

Largo: "We're soldiers, so we have to take the risk. But, if there's an alternative way, then we will gladly take it."

Uni looks at the map again to check if there's any ways to go around... "It just HAS to be in the boundary, huh? No way to go around the back then."

Alicia then asks: "Kuro has those enemy-finding grenades, right? Do you have anything to blind the enemies?"

Uni: "Well... we have two, but since the battlefield is too large, a number of grenades to use is going to be over two-digits."

Isara: "But that's a grenade. Can you create a tank shell filled of that?"

Uni thinks for a second. "That... might work. Yes, it will work." She then confirms. "But... if that's the case... Edelweiss might have to replace the AP shell for this occasion."

"Well that's where I come in." Zaka, the new member of Squad 7, speaks up. "I will control another tank and help dealing the damage for you guys."

"That's one less thing to worry about." Uni then brings up another thing: "So when should we attack? Day or night? I vote for the latter."

"I have to disagree in this matter." Surprisingly, Kuro is the one saying that. "It's not that it's not effective to fight them in the dark since we have the advantages of technology. However, given that they have mortars and gunneries, the night-goggles could break at any seconds, and that's not something we like."

"Then we don't have the weather on our side." Welkin rubs his left temple. "And we have to fight in Holy Spirit Festival too... it's not going to be fun to everyone."

Kuro then asks: "Isara, Uni, how long do you think it takes for us to create those shells? Is it possible to do it before the festival?"

Uni: "...Even if we use up all the night, we would still have to fight at the beginning of the festival."

The other merc sighs. "Then don't rush... Now I'm tempting to go on this op alone..."

"Then that would defeat the purpose of us being mercs... still, I can understand your frustration..."

"If there's nothing you can say more, then you're dismissed." Eleanor says. "Wish you have a happy Holy Spirit Festival."

* * *

Nighttime, same day. Location: Male Barrack

"Something in your mind?" Welkin asks Kuro, as the merc stands near the window and looks towards the sky.

"...Kinda." Kuro then sits down on one of the chairs, and controls Shanghai who's dancing on a table to make her change into another dance. "Fighting in a happy day of a nation... a very unfortunate time for a war to happen."

Welkin sits down on a bed, looks at the dancing doll before saying: "It's unfortunate, indeed. But, that's the life of a soldier... surely you have a time of inconvenience like this?"

"A lot." Making Shanghai spin once, Kuro adds: "But, for the sakes of the others, I don't really mind since I have all the time in the world if I truly want."

"True..." Welkin doesn't have many things to say about it. Then, he changes the subject: "Hey, tomorrow we're going to have a small party for the Festival. Want to join?"

Kuro chuckles, as Shanghai stops dancing and starts clapping happily. "Of course. Can't deny an invitation like that."

...

The next day

"A luck charm, heh?" Kuro receives a Darscens doll from Zaka, as they're in the dining hall of the base.

"Yeah. The people in Fouzen are grateful of the Militia's help, especially you and Uni. The two 'Darcsens' that stood up among the rest."

"They know that we aren't, right?" Uni receives one as well, and she asks jokingly.

"Yep." Zaka then turns to look at Isara who's also giving the charm to Largo and Rosie, the former thankfully taking it while the other still denying the present. "I guess she's still a little stuck up."

"She is... changing a person's perspective is not very easy." Kuro then pulls out a small, old diary out of his pocket and gives it to Zaka. "Managed to get this out of the burning mess in Barious in the past. Given the name, I guess it belonged to an old Darscens. Something to remember the past."

"Ah, thanks." Zaka gratefully receives it. "Your power really goes very handy a lot of times."

"It is." Kuro then spots Imca in the hall, and he calls her: "Hey, Ace. Want to join us?"

"Thanks, but I'm returning to my squad now."

"Well, suit yourself." Imca nods and heads out. Kuro then turns to Zaka and asks: "Hey, have you talked to her yet?"

"Ah yeah, a few times. A little too uptight. But, I could see pain in her eyes, so I guess she's like Rosie in a sense..."

"Yeah... something like that..." Hearing the story from Kuro, Uni could understand. "Although, at least she's a little open-minded to her squadmates."

"That I saw." Zaka agrees. "Well, let's enjoy the festival before the fight."

When Zaka heads out, Uni then asks Kuro: "So... they're not going out yet? Squad 422, I mean?"

"After Naggair...or maybe not. I mean, Calamity Raven is currently working outside of Gallia ground, and their priority is not to take over Randgriz. Tesla brothers managed to get them on their sides, so I think I could try the same thing. And... I believe I do have an inner friend..."

Uni shakes her head in amusement. "Yeah, independence seekers."

...

A day before the operation. Eleanor's Office

"Have the smoke shells finished, mister Kuro?"

"They have, miss Eleanor."

"...Do you think it will work?"

"Blinding the enemies, yes. Blocking bullets, obviously no. But, they will have to shoot blind, so at least we still have a better chance to survive the barrages."

"I see... Other than that..."

"Well, I do have to call for another back-up, if you want to ask about that."

* * *

Dawn. Marberry Shore

"Everyone, listen up. The entrance between us and the enemies has little to no covers. Try to use the smokescreen and our tanks to hide yourself from the enemies." Welkin orders.

"Regular Army will use their tanks to cover the infantry until the slopes. From there, Engineers, keep using the smoke grenades to cover our allies." Kurt has also ordered his squadmates in helping the operation.

"Be advised, all units. The Imperial is having high ground advantage. Be careful of what's over the cliff." Eleanor warns through the radio.

"Hey, Ace. You still have space in your bag?" Imca turns to look at Kuro, who's in his Juggernaut armor with a few small warheads in his arms. "I need you to hold on this for a while."

"What's the occasion?" Receiving the bag, Imca asks emotionlessly.

"It's to deal with the annoying bunkers." Kuro simply says.

"...Alright."

"Thanks." Returning to his squad, Kuro says to Welkin: "Everything is ready."

"Okay. Squad 7, move out!"

...

Thanks to the help of Regular Army, the Gallia soldiers manage to push towards the slopes. Though, from here the soldiers have to go in without the support of tanks. They have to rely on the smoke grenades that Engineers throw around and hide behind any covers they could find. The Lancers try to blast away the bunkers but so far there are not very effective.

"Hey, Ace. Ask Kuro what the hell he gave you earlier." Number 33 ducks behind cover next to Ace, then she remembers about the warheads.

Nodding, Ace calls over her radio: "Hey, Kuro. About the warheads you gave me..."

"Your weapons have multi-lock system, right?" Kuro asks back, before he raises his shield up to block a mortar heading straight to him. "Pull out two of those and aim it at two of the bunkers and fire."

"Even tank shells don't work against them. Why do you think these warheads could make a difference?"

"Trust me, it will."

Deciding to trust him this time, Ace loads the warheads and fires them at the nearest bunkers to her. She is expecting them to explode...only to see them landing harmlessly on the top of the bunkers. "...Those warheads don't work, you dumba$$."

"Who said they don't work?" Kuro changes his position and rushes to where Ace is. He then pulls out a communicating device of him. "Watch."

"This is not the time to play..." Ace shuts herself up when she sees the screen. "What...is...that..."

"Art of war." That's Kuro's simple answer to Ace, before he orders: "Warhammer, do you have a clear shot on the beacons?"

"Standby... affirmative." An unfamiliar voice calls out from Kuro's device. "Danger close."

"Got it!" Kuro then calls everyone through the radio: "Every infantry, danger close! Take cover immediately!"

"W..." Ace has no chances to talk as Kuro already pushes Ace and Thirty-three's backs and covers them with his body. Just at that moment Ace hears sounds of bullets flying above her head and sounds of explosions. Moving their heads up a bit, Squad 422's members see something that's nearly impossible. From the sky, barrages of bullets hail down like rainstorms, hitting at the bunkers that Ace just hit the mini-warheads. The barrages then stop after ten seconds of shooting... and a missile flies towards another bunker, destroying it instantly. "What...from the sky?"

"That's my back-up." Kuro has retracted his hands and reaches his gun. "Uni, man the Predator. I'm going in."

...

"Copy that." Uni answers, while looking over her communicate device. "Time for another wave of air strike..."

From the Predator's eye, she could see Gallian soldiers hiding inside the smoke screen, with Squad 422 and Squad 7 slowly pushing towards the enemies. One bunker is right in front of Number Seven's face, so she calls him back so her shot wouldn't harm him. Once the second missile is out, Uni lets the Predator change its position while she runs towards another cover and starts helping Gallia Snipers in shooting down the Imp Snipers.

Closing in to the second camp, Uni sees Kuro raising his shield to protect some Gallia troopers getting wounded from stray shots. Shooting a Scout trying to get in, she then asks Kuro: "How's it going?"

"One beacon left." He then turns to see Ace using the last one, followed immediately by the barrage shot from AC-130. "...Never mind. Any smoke grenades left?"

"The color ones, you mean?" Pulling out one, Uni asks before ducking to avoid a shot flying over her head.

"Yep, that one." Retracting the shield, Kuro raises his machine gun and shoots down a gunnery. "You do it yourself, or..."

"Don't worry, I got it." Putting back her gun, Uni calls out her sword, which is designed after Brave's sword, and starts charging forward the enemies. With years of fighting, she easily dodges around the bullet hails from the enemies, while cutting down ones near her. Then, when she's near one bunker, she pulls the pin of the smoke grenade and throws it on top of the objective before retreating back quickly. Over the radio, she hears the confirming vision of Warhammer, and seconds later the bunker's destroyed.

"Black Sister, this is Warhammer. We see enemies starting to retreat. Should we blast them down?"

"...Negative. Let them be." There's no reasons for more bloodshed.

"Understand. Warhammer out."

* * *

After the fight, Gallia has taken Marberry Shore back. Everyone is now relaxing in their camp, including Squad 7.

Rosie, who's having a bandage covering the gun wound on her arm, then approaches Isara who's checking on Edelweiss. After calling for the girl, the Shocktrooper pulls out the lucky charm and says: "Thanks to this little pal, I survived. I guess I own you this time. Do you want something to ask me?"

The young girl, a little surprised at Rosie's kindness, starts thinking: "Let me see... hey, how about you sing when we return back?"

"...That's it?" Rosie chuckles. "I was expecting more than that. But...okay. If that's what you really want to."

Hearing that makes everyone smile widely, and Isara reaches her hand out for a handshake. Seeing it, Rosie also does the same...

*BANG!* *BANG!*

Not one, but two shots ring out in the air. Kuro, while expecting a shot to hit Isara, is clearly surprised of the appearance of the second shot, as he turns back to see where it could be, to see Alicia also getting hit as well. "Get to cover!" He immediately shouts out, as he rushes towards Isara and pulls her out of the line of enemies' sight, while Uni does the same to Alicia. While pulling Isara back, Kuro draws out his revolver and aims right at the first sniper and kills him instantly with one shot. Though, he tries to find a second one, the shooter is nowhere to be found. "Damn it!" Gritting his teeth, Kuro then orders: "Uni, start healing Alicia!" He rushes back to Isara and starts healing her back with his Lotus spell, and watches with relief that the wound starts closing...

"Alicia?" Hearing Welkin's question of surprise, he turns to see the girl herself radiating the blue flame of Valkyria. Using his free hand, he rubs his eyes, and then groans.

Rosie, seeing the display of Alicia's power as well, widens her eyes in shock. Then, seeing Kuro's reaction, she asks: "Kuro... is Alicia..."

"Yes." Seeing there's no reasons to hide any longer, Kuro reveals. "She is exactly what you have in your mind right now." After Isara's wound is fully closed, he walks towards Alicia and observes the healing process. "...The power of Valkyria has awakened..."

Largo, after snapping out of his shock, asks Kuro: "How long have you known this?"

"...Doesn't matter. Right now..." Kuro turns his eyes to Isara. "While the two are healed up, they still need to rest. And all of us as well. In the afternoon, I will answer."

* * *

Time skip

Infirmary

Alicia, after being knocked out due to the shot to the vital spot on her body, wakes up in the infirmary, with bandages covering her upper body. She sits up and sees Welkin, Isara, Rosie, Largo, Kuro, Uni, Faldio and Number Thirteen sitting around her bed. Seeing this kind of attention unnerves Alicia as she asks: "Um...guys...What happened?"

"What's the last thing you remembered?" Kuro, instead of answering, asks her back, with his voice full of demand.

"...Well...I remembered getting shot..." Alicia then looks down at her bandages. "But, I'm saved now, right? Thanks to you all."

"...Not to all." Kuro says. He then drops the bomb: "Alicia, your own power saved you. You are a Valkyria."

... Alicia lets out a nervous laugh after a whole minute of silence. "Kuro, you're kidding, right? I'm just a regular worker who's now a soldier..."

"I'm afraid we have evidences to support that." Faldio speaks up. "In Barious Sanctuary, the entrance would only open for the descendants of the Valkyrur to head in. We didn't figure that out immediately since we found Maximilian and Selvaria in there. However, after a skirmish later, I saw you being covered in blue flame in your sleep, which healed your wounds. After returning back to the base, I have asked Kuro and Uni to confirm my theory... and I was correct."

"No...it...it can't be..." Fear starts showing in her eyes. "I'm...I'm not her...I..."

"Yes, you're not her." The poor Scout turns to Uni. "You're not Selvaria Bles. You're Alicia Melchiott, a baker in Bruhl, a Scout in Militia, and the second-in-command of Squad 7. Keep it in mind."

"But...but... if I'm really... a Valkyria..."

"So? You're still our friend." Isara speaks up. "Just because you have Valkyrur blood in you, you're still precious to us."

"..." Taking a small moment to control her breath back, she then asks Kuro: "...What do you aim for, revealing this to me?"

"Because, I want you to choose." Kuro answers directly. "Since you know that you have the power in you, you have two paths:

One: use the discovered power of Valkyria running inside you and help protecting Gallia.

Two: abandon the power and try to fight without it.

I want you to think VERY CAREFULLY, because this is a very important choice in your life." Kuro concludes.

The room then falls silence one more time, letting the girl be in her train of thought...

Then, Alicia asks: "What did you do, when you found out you have the power in you, Kuro? And, Uni as well?"

Having heard the question clear, Kuro takes a small glance towards Uni, signalling her to go first. Uni nods, and she starts: "As a CPU, my power comes from the faith of my people. Everyday, I try my best to protect the citizens from the monsters wandering around the nation, and at the same time provide them the best condition to live. Of course, not everyone likes how my sister and I lead them, so they have the choice to move to another nation to live. Still, it's always a two-way trade when it comes to my power."

"So the power bonds to the people you protect." Earning a nod from the CPU, Alicia turns to Kuro. "And you? If you're the same CPU like her..."

"No." Kuro interrupts her. "I'm different from a normal CPU. The name was only given to me, because I lived up to their names and protected the people during their absences."

"...My previous question still stands."

"...Doing what I believe that could help people. Before I got CPU's power and earned the title...I had no power, and I was stuck in a place where you could call Hell in comparison. In there, I had managed to get the people out of the place, but at the cost of myself forever stuck there. But, even with my efforts, the pain of the dead ones never faltered. I decided to pull out the last decision...by sacrificing myself to the place."

That earns a small gasp from Alicia. She only saw how he looked like before in Fouzen, but she never knew the story behind it. Rosie then asks: "So you were expecting death? But, if you're here..."

Kuro nods. "Thanks to a very lucky moment, I was spared from being pulled into the depth of real Hell. Though, that left me in the state that you saw before."

Alicia then continues: "So... even before then..."

"Yes, I helped people when I didn't have any powers. And even with them that turned me into a divine being, I never used it to do anything dark despite the nature of my power. I use the power I have as allies to help other people, and that's what I will not go against anytime soon."

Another silence... then Riela's power flares up, surprising Alicia. "Thirteen...you..."

"Call me Riela, please." She decides to reveal her name. "And about the power... I was like you, not knowing what to do with this power. However, seeing my squad nearly get killed... I used my power to protect them. Of course, unlike Selvaria, I only used them in critical situations, but to save my friends, I won't hesitate to use it now, even if I am called monster later on."

After three stories, Alicia looks down at her bed sheet while grabbing on her white blanket... then, she asks: "Can you four leave me for now? I want to talk with my squad alone."

Kuro nods. "We understand. Take your time." He stands up, followed quickly by Uni, Faldio and Riela, and the group walks out of the infirmary...

"Everyone..." The others immediately focus back on Alicia. "In my memories, I grew up in an orphanage. I didn't have a real family, and I thought I would be always alone. But... Welkin has proven me wrong. The moment I joined Squad 7 was the time I had a family. You guys...are my family now."

Hearing the confession temporarily stuns everyone. Never have they thought about the squad being one big family. She then continues: "Before every battle, I was scared...I figured my feeling would be like you all. But...when I stand beside all of you, I feel stronger... strong enough to fight."

"...Family, huh?" Largo speaks out loud. "My old folks are gone, no siblings for myself either...but I bet this is what's it like."

"Well...I have the same feeling, Alicia." It's Isara. "Before the war, I only have my father and Gunther's as my family. Now, I consider everyone in squad 7 as a big family, no matter the race."

"...She has a point." Rosie agrees. "It's been a while since I have a family...had."

"But... now I'm scared." That drops the smile on everyone's face. "The power inside me... I don't want to leave you all..." Looking at her hands, Alicia starts crying. "I... I just wished to have a normal family... and then, this happened..."

Everyone doesn't say a word when Alicia brings her hands up her face, trying to hide her teary face. Welkin looks at the window outside for a moment, before saying: "Alicia... you don't have to leave..."

"I will be forced to." Alicia hiccups. "This power... Gallia needs someone strong enough to stay in the front... and this just proved it..."

"Nobody will bring you anywhere." Isara pulls Alicia's down and looks directly in her eyes. "And even if they do, we will follow you to the end. Remember, you're a part of family."

Gaining a surprised look on her face, Alicia then looks up to everyone for the confirmation. Rosie smiles and says first: "Yeah, she's right. From the beginning of the war, we have stood side-by-side. There's no reasons for us to separate now."

Largo follows with a laugh: "Someone needs to take care of you kids. Being one of the oldest, I'm obviously in!"

Welkin smiles. "You see, everyone's by your side. You don't have to worry about being alone."

"...Thank...thank you very much..." Alicia cries again, but this time in happiness.

Welkin nods. "You're welcome."

After a few more minutes, Alicia wipes her tears away with a handkerchief Isara gives her. She then says: "We should call the rest back." Largo nods and goes to the exit door, opens it and calls the group back. Once everyone's back in their seats, Alicia starts: "Kuro, I..."

Kuro raises his hand up, stopping her in place. "Let me ask you first: What would you use this power for?"

Taking 3 seconds, Alicia replies: "To protect my family and Gallia."

Kuro nods. "Very well. Then, you accept the power?" The Scout nods. "Good." He then glances at Riela: "Listen, you two. When we return back, and after Holy Spirit Festival, I'm going to train both of you to control the power inside you." He then pulls out the files he shared with Audrey before, and the others lean in. "And I need you to be very serious in this, because these are the results of uncontrollable Valkyria power."

Everyone takes one file for themselves. Largo then exclaims: "Wait a second! They're newspapers about the Ragnite accid..."

"That's the front." Uni confirms. "All of the files in our hands here, through Kuro's VOTP, are Valkyria experiments."

Alicia gasps in shock. "Then... the people surrounding..."

"Yeah... you were close to be one." Kuro reveals, earning looks of disbelief from the others. "Remember, Faldio, about me talking about Selvaria and Alicia's relationship?"

The leader of Squad 1 nods. "But, it could be before Alicia could remember everything, right?"

Kuro nods. "Alicia and Selvaria were in one experiment lab before it exploded, and the two separated." He then takes back the files while saying: "I think it's enough for now. Everyone, take a rest to save energy for the Festival."

* * *

"You won't tell them who shot Alicia?" After everyone's out of the hearing range, Uni asks Kuro.

"...Something's better kept in the dark."

* * *

**Chapter 15 end!**

**So yeah, instead of having Alicia, we also have Riela in the team as well. Though, it will be a little harder for me to deal with Riela, since I haven't played VC3 once. But, I will try to get as many details as possible from Youtube.**

**That's it, for now! See you all in the future!**


End file.
